


The Nice Progenitors

by LexLemon



Category: The Nice Guys (2016)
Genre: Accidental Baby Acquisition, Domestic Fluff, Family Fluff, Gen, Jealous Older Sibling Holly March, New Dad Jackson Healy, The rating’s for language and violence, Tired Dad Holland March, With some angst here and there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-02
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-04-06 07:26:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 38,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19058005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LexLemon/pseuds/LexLemon
Summary: When an abandoned baby appears in their bushes, it’s up to the Nice Guys Agency to find his family...and try not to accidentally kill him in the process.





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Progenitor, /proh-jen-i-ter/, noun: a biologically related ancestor

She didn't care how hard her bare feet were slapping against the gravel beneath her. She didn't care that she was barefoot at all. She would have never made it this far if she had kept those tight black heels on. Now they were right where they belonged: In the trash on Hollywood Boulevard.

She used to say the same thing about herself. But things change.

She didn't care that she had no idea where the fuck she was running to. She didn't care that it was five in the morning and she couldn't see two feet in front of her. None of that mattered anyway. All she could do was run.

She was a tall, pale-skinned woman with bobbed brown hair that fluttered against her neck with each step she took. Her breathing was ragged as she ran through the suburbs, sweat dripping down from her temple to the edge of her chin. She clutched something wrapped in a blue blanket to her black leather-covered chest that one could only assume was a baby.

Poor girl. She was only twenty-eight. She had so much life ahead of her.

The woman wore a black leather vest that revealed her midriff and a black leather skirt to match. It wasn't a practical outfit for March at all. But it was the only outfit she'd had with her when she started her escape. She'd have to make do.

The woman wouldn't dare look back. She knew her pursuers were behind her in that dingy tan Mercedes. She felt the headlights shining on her from behind, so she didn't need to know they were there. Besides, looking would only make them know that she was running out of energy. They would realize they were going to win.

The woman crossed the street and onto another block to find that the streetlights ended and the neighborhood was coated in darkness. Perfect. She had an opportunity.

Her strength came flooding back to her and she picked up speed, racing into the pitch black that lay ahead. She ran so far that she couldn't hear the car driving behind her anymore. She was lucky. For now.

The woman didn't stop running until she was forced to by a large dirt wall. She felt her shoulders sag as she stared up to see the rest of civilization waiting for her at the top of it.

Shit. This was a cul-de-sac, wasn't it? That meant there was no way out but up.

Before she could figure out how she was going to get up there, she felt goosebumps crawl over her once she heard the sound of tires against gravel in the distance. She hid behind a nearby tree and waited with bated breath as her pursuers drove around the curved street and moved on to the next one. They hadn't even seen her. Thank God.

When the coast was clear, the woman took a deep breath and walked towards the hill. She took several steps up and found it to be easier than she thought. The ground was hard enough that it created a steady elevation, making several little hills to climb rather than one large hill. Sure, there were patches of soft dirt that made her slip now and then, but she never let go of her baby. That was one thing she was making damn sure of.

The climb took about fifteen minutes, and she reached the top with only a couple of dirt stains on her legs. She hadn't even twisted her ankle. Maybe she was stronger than she thought.

The woman walked around and saw that she stood on the side of a lavish house on another winding cul-de-sac street. God, Los Angeles was so over-the-top. The City of Angels? Yeah right. More like the City of Unnecessary Mazes.

The woman made her way to the front of the house and looked both ways. There was no one in sight. She was alone. But how long would that last?

Maybe she could go to the end of the street and see if they were coming. Of course, they couldn't be. They hadn't seen her hide. But it was best to take precautions.

The woman looked at her baby and sighed. What if they _were_ there? She couldn't take that risk. Not after all she had done these past two days. She would just set him down for a minute. She would be back. It would just be a quick look.

The woman saw a patch of bushes at the front of the house and bent down before them. She gave her baby a gentle squeeze then kissed his head. She placed him underneath the bushes and made sure the leaves covered him from view. When the deed was done, she got up and continued running.

It wouldn't take long. She would look both ways then go back for her baby. She'd been saving up money for a plane ticket. She had it back at her apartment. She could grab it then take herself and her baby on a one-way ticket to their new home. Maybe Seattle. She'd heard that Seattle was nice.

The woman reached the end of the street and found herself turning left. Wait. Shit. The plan. How could she forget? Fucking Seattle had distracted her.

The woman stopped and turned around, seeing no one coming from behind. She sighed then turned around but found a bright light in her face.

"Freeze!" a voice called.

The woman held her hands up over her head and felt her eyes grow wider in the light. If there was anyone that could look like a deer in headlights, it was her at that moment.

The light then turned off as he stepped forward. That bastard. How had he found her?

She didn't bother turning around. She could hear his two goons come up from behind, preventing her from escaping.

The man before her chuckled as he lowered his flashlight.

"I have to admit, you put up quite a chase," he greeted in his deep but kind voice that she used to love. "I thought we lost you back there. But I said to myself, 'No, she couldn't have climbed up that hill, could she?' Well, it's a good thing I checked, isn’t it?"

The woman didn't answer. She wasn't afraid. She wasn't scared of him anymore. She wasn't even in love with him. The only thing she felt towards him was pure hatred.

He continued, "So it's just you and me. And the boys, of course. So how about you just come in the car? Just you, me, and-"

The man's eyes fell to her chest and he couldn't help but scoff. "Hang on. Where's our baby, baby?"

The woman kept her cold eyes on him, stiffening her lip as well.

"Not talking, huh? Honey, you know I don't like it when you keep things from me. We're a team. We're not supposed to keep things from each other. We work _together_. And you're not being a very good team player right now, Little Star. So I'll have to raise the stakes."

The man reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a .35, pointing it directly at her leather chest.

"Tell me where the kid is."

Two words. There were only two words that were running through her head. Saying them would determine whether she lived to see the sunrise that morning. But they were all that remained. They were the only two words she wanted to say. They were the only two words she had left for him. She had to say them.

Arching her back with her arms still raised above her, the woman gave the man a cold glare as she said the two words through gritted teeth.

"Eat shit."

A single gunshot rang throughout the neighborhood as a young woman crumpled to the hard street.

The man tucked his gun back in his jacket then walked past his men.

"Let's go. We'll find him," he told them.

The three then hopped back into the Mercedes and drove off into the night.

The woman's body remained untouched on the street, her blood beginning to pool underneath. Her head was turned to the side with her eyes open, seeing the future that she would never have.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Discernment, /dih-surn-muhnt/, noun: the faculty of perceiving by the sight or some other sense or by the intellect

The sun shone over a blue Camaro driving through the suburbs in the late morning. _The_ _Partridge_ _Family_ theme song blasted from its open windows as it drove under blue skies and past neat lawns on winding streets.

The Camaro's passengers, Jackson Healy and Holland March, sang along to David Cassidy's jaunty voice with smiles that stretched across their faces. And why shouldn't they be happy? They'd just gotten a new case to solve, were $400 richer, and it was only noon. The world was theirs for the taking.

The Camaro soon reached their street of Stafford Drive to find crime scene tape plastered in front of the house before the intersection. Holland squinted and leaned to the side, hoping to get a better view of the scene. All he could see were police cars lined up on the street and cops standing over a body bag behind the tape. Holland would have been phased by this, but he'd lived in California his entire life. This kind of shit happened twice a week.

"Huh," he remarked aloud. "Wonder what happened there."

Healy didn't even look at the scene. He'd been doing this detective business with Holland for a few months now, but he still couldn't help but be freaked out by real crimes. They were supposed to be catching old men cheating on their wives, not finding dead bodies. Leave that to the real detectives that people recognized. That wasn't his job.

Instead, Healy gripped his hands tighter on the steering wheel and turned left onto their street. David Cassidy finished the song as they pulled up to their house, parking along the curb.

As they got out, Holland explained, "So I figured we could just go inside quick, set down our stuff, then go pick up Holly."

"Sounds good. Then, we'll go searching for our missing girl?"

"Yeah, sure. What's her name again?"

"Jenny Carraday."

Holland shrugged to himself. She sounded like the name of every other missing girl they were hired to find. Her roommate sounded pretty worried about her, though. Well, better to get started now then later.

As they walked towards the front door, the sound of tiny mewling echoed through the area. The two stopped and darted their heads from side to side. They were glad that their friend was doing it too. It made them feel better that they weren't hearing shit in their heads.

The two eventually found the source to be coming from one of the bushes on the side of the house. Holland's confusion turned to annoyance as he stared at it. He knew exactly what that fucking noise was.

"Ignore it," he told Healy. "It's one of those damn cats again. One of these days, I'm going to grab one of those motherfuckers and teach them not to piss on my rims."

Holland began to fiddle with the keys as he stood before the door, still muttering through gritted teeth.

Healy didn't move from staring at the bush. Something about the noise was unsettling to him. Sure, it sounded like the neighborhood cats, but this one was different. This wasn't a normal "I'm just a cat saying shit" noise. It almost sounded like it needed help.

Ah, fuck it. Healy may look like a tough guy, but he had a heart of gold. Plus, it was one cat. What harm could it do?

With Holland still distracted, Healy walked over to the bush, bent down, and pushed the leaves aside. He stared at the source of the noise lying in the dirt and felt his eyes widen.

This couldn't be happening. What the fuck was _that_ doing there? He couldn't take care of it alone. No, this was a two-man job.

"Uh, March," he called.

Holland pushed the door open then looked over at his friend. His fury was still written on his face, but he softened up once he saw the distress in Healy's eyes.

The man added, "This isn't a cat."

What the fuck was he on? That was a cat noise if Holland ever heard one. Healy better not be pulling some prank on him because it was bound to bite him in the ass later.

Shaking his head, Holland walked over and bent beside him. The same shocked look appeared on his face as he saw the source as well.

Lying in their bushes was a crying newborn baby swaddled in a blue blanket. It was the exact opposite of a cat. It was a fucking human being.

"Holy shit," Holland said as he grabbed the baby into his arms.

The two men took their feet while Holland gave the baby a small bounce, soothing, "Shhhh, hey, it's okay. It's okay, it's okay. Shhhh."

His head looked both ways down the street, trying to find someone, anyone that looked like they could have left a baby in their bushes. "D-Do you see anyone?"

Healy began to scan the area as well. Nope. Not a single person in sight. Their street could have been part of a fucking ghost town.

"No," he breathed.

Holland continued to stare out at the street until he said, "Fuck it. Let's just...bring it inside. We'll see what we can do."

Healy only nodded in reply. He was still in a state of shock. He didn't have any words left in him.

The two made their way inside then shut the door behind them. They walked towards the living room with Holland still trying to calm the baby down.

"Shhh, it's okay. It's okay, little..." He pulled the blanket down to get a small peek at what was inside. "...guy. Little guy. It's okay."

Once they sat on the couch, the baby seemed to stop crying and instead cooed against Holland's chest.

Turning to his friend, Holland asked, "How the fuck did a baby get in our bushes?"

"I-I don't know." What, did Holland think Healy saw someone put a baby in their bushes and decide not to tell him? Jesus Christ. What kind of person did he think he was?

Healy suggested, "They must have left him there while we were gone."

"Yeah, probably. But still, who would do that? Who would just leave a baby behind?"

God, people were sick. Every day, Holland found people getting more crazy than they were before. It just went to show how bad drugs really were. Good thing he didn't use them. Who knows what kind of shit he'd been doing if he were?

"Well, one thing's for certain," he told Healy. "We have to find his parents."

"Of course. But where do we go? We don't know who left him. I'm sure someone would have told us by now if they saw someone come by or they would have taken him themselves."

Healy had a point. The baby must have been left there when no one was around. Holland couldn't wrap his head around the idea. Who would just abandon their baby in a place where no one would see them?

That's when it hit him. Maybe it wasn't his parents that left him there. Maybe he was kidnapped. And where would a newborn be kidnapped from?

"The hospital."

Healy shook his head and turned to stare at Holland. He'd been so lost in his thoughts that he wasn't sure if Holland had been saying something before that. He usually was. Holland never shut up, so Healy tended to tune him out.

"What?" he asked.

"Hospitals keep track of all the babies that are born there. Whichever one he came from must be freaking out right now. So tomorrow, we go there and ask if there was a case of a missing baby recently."

"Perfect...Wait, tomorrow?" Healy had heard him correctly, didn't he? It was only noon. Why did they have to wait another day to reunite a family with their kid? He would never understand Holland's brain and the crazy shit it said.

His friend replied, "Well, you know...I just thought that we should focus on making sure the little guy's healthy. We don't know how long he was in there."

Healy shrugged to himself. He had a point. He didn't want to return an unhealthy baby to his parents. That wouldn't blow over well.

Holland looked down at the baby that had fallen asleep in his arms. He was cute. He was snuggled against Holland's chest, the only sound he made being his tiny breathing in and out.

Holland hadn't been with a baby since his daughter was born. It felt weird to have one with him in his house again. He didn't mind. He was already remembering some of the old tricks he learned with Holly. Besides, it would only be for a day.

"We should probably give him a name," he said.

"A name?"

Healy wasn't thrilled with the idea. He would feel bad calling the baby a different name than what his parents gave him. He'd be disappointed if he met them the next day and hear them call him something different than what he'd been using for the past day. It felt dirty, like he was trying to take their kid from them. And that was the last thing he wanted to do.

Holland replied, "Well, yeah. I'm not going to call him 'the baby' all day. He needs a name."

Healy didn't bother to question his methods anymore. Sure, March. Whatever you say.

Holland set the baby down on a pillow beside them, allowing them to stare at him. They watched him sleep inside his warm blanket, not making a peep even when moved.

"So how do you want to do this?" Holland asked. "Just throw a name at him and see which he responds to?"

"I guess so."

"Okay. I'll start. Uh..."

Jesus, this was harder than he thought. Why did there have to be so many goddamn names out there? Couldn't they just have three? Fuck it. Just go with the easiest one.

"John."

Damn. That was going to be Healy's guess.

"Patrick."

"Richie?"

"Jacob."

"Matthew."

"Eddie?"

Shit, nothing was working. None of the names seemed right for him. His face was just so fucking hard to place.

Holland was starting to feel the pressure. They were going to be here all afternoon, weren't they?

Another name popped into his head and he just had to get it out. The silence was too much.

"Adolf."

"Did you really just suggest that we name him Adolf?" Jesus Christ. Holland needed to tone down his obsession with Hitler. It was nauseating.

Holland replied, "Hey, kids are being given the weirdest names these days. He'll fit right in."

"Oh, is that so, _Holland_?”

Ouch. There was no need for Healy to gut him like that. He was already sensitive about his name.

Holland stared at his friend for a moment then turned back to the baby. He cleared his throat, "It's your turn."

"...Leo."

Shit, he thought of one already? God. What other names could there possibly be?

Holland threw his hands in the air. "Huey."

That one did it. The baby started to move once he said it, shaking his head with a small coo.

Holland gasped then rubbed his finger against the baby's cheek. "Huey?" he asked in a low voice. "Do you like that name? Huh? Do you like Huey?"

Yeah. Huey. He looked like a Huey. That one would do.

Holland took the baby back in his arms and declared, "Well, there we go. His name's Huey."

Healy couldn't argue with that. It had a nice ring to it. Plus, the baby seemed to like it. And if he liked it, that's all that mattered.

A smile appeared on Healy's face as he stared at Huey, the baby curling right back into Holland.

His friend noticed his look and asked, "Do you want to hold him?"

"What?"

"I just realized you haven't gotten to hold him yet. Do you want to?"

"Oh, uh..." Healy found himself breaking into a sweat. He rubbed his hand against the back of his neck and turned his head to the floor. "N-No, no, that's-" He cleared his throat, "That's fine. I don't...I don't need to...I'm good.”

"Hang on." Holland found himself cracking a smile. "You've never held a baby before, have you?"

There was no way Healy could hide the bright red appearing on his face. Holland had let his secret out for all to hear.

He sighed. "No. No, I haven't. I haven't...I've never...been around...a baby...before."

There. He said it. God, that felt good to get off his chest.

Healy was waiting for Holland to laugh and crack one of his signature jokes, but it never came. Instead, he said, "Hey, that's okay. I'll show you. I remember all the shit with babies from Holly. I'll teach it to you. Here, holding one's easy."

Holland shifted his body so that he faced Healy directly instead of from the side. Holding Huey out to him, he explained, "Alright, so the thing you have to remember is that you need to hold him in two places. One hand is holding the body and the other's on the head. Babies don't have control of their necks yet, so holding the head up is key. Got it?"

"Yup."

“You ready?"

"I think so."

”Alright, get your hands ready."

Holland leaned forward while Healy held out his arms, placing Huey inside them.

Healy held his breath as Huey now snuggled into his chest. He was a lot lighter than he thought he would be. He was almost afraid that his muscular arms would crush him if he wasn't careful. Well, he sure as hell wouldn't let that happen. The kid was with Jackson Healy now. He was going to protect him no matter what.

Looking down at his sleeping face, Healy breathed, "Hello.”

An impulse suddenly overwhelmed him as he raised his finger to Huey's neck. Giving it a gentle tickle, he smiled as he cooed, "Cootchie cootchie coo."

Shit. He hadn't just said that out loud, had he?

Healy's head turned to Holland, who had a shocked expression on his face. Whatever shred of dignity he had left between them had gone down the drain.

Healy cleared his throat as he explained, "I-I've heard other people say that."

Holland didn't respond. He kept staring at Healy instead, like he was now a stranger in his house.

Healy returned to Huey and did it again, tickling him and saying, "Cootchie cootchie coo."

Their fun didn't last long, as Huey suddenly let out a low cry. God dammit. It was going so well.

Healy didn't like this one bit. He'd never held a crying baby before and wasn't exactly sure what to do with one. Panicking, he held his arms out to Holland, practically throwing Huey back to him.

Holland took the baby back, trying to hold back a chuckle at how much of a pussy Healy was being. Pulling Huey in, he soothed, "Awww, it's okay. It's okay. He's probably just hungry."

He began to stand up and walk towards the kitchen, saying, "You haven't eaten in a while, have you? Don't worry. Mr. March has some milk for you."

Holland stood in the middle of the kitchen, not noticing Healy entering behind him. He definitely had milk that wasn't expired. How he was going to give it to Huey was a different story.

"How are you going to do that?" Healy echoed his thoughts aloud. "We don't have any bottles to give it to him through."

Holland rolled his eyes and didn't bother to turn around. One, two, three, four...

He eventually turned his head around and spat, "That's what I'm trying to think of, Healy. Please, if you have any bright ideas, share them."

Well. There was nothing more to say to that. Healy held up his hands in surrender and stepped back to let his friend work his magic.

Holland turned back around with a sigh, bouncing the crying Huey in his arms. He didn't like feeling like a new parent again. He thought he had this shit down from the first time. Well, he didn't have any supplies to help him, so that was an issue. Come on, Holland. How do the fucking animals do it?

Wait. The fucking animals. That was it. He'd watched a nature documentary a few days before on baby animals being rescued from the wild by vets. He remembered every detail. God bless those fucking shows.

Holland opened a drawer in the counter and sifted through its contents. Come on, come on. Where the fuck was it?

Finally, there it was. Holland grabbed a tiny white dropper from the bottom of the drawer then placed it onto the counter. He closed the drawer then rifled through a cabinet, pulling out a small bowl.

Healy watched the master at work from the other side of the kitchen. He thought it was best not to question Holland's methods. He'd just get angry again.

He didn't have to wonder for long, as Holland started talking once he opened the refrigerator. "Watch and learn, Healy. You are witnessing a skilled parent. I may be low on resources, but we'll make do."

Holland pulled a carton of milk out then brought it over to the other supplies. He poured the milk into the bowl then stepped aside.

"Bring the bowl into the living room," he told Healy.

His friend grabbed it then walked out of the kitchen, shaking his head. None of this seemed right to him, but sure, March. Whatever floats your boat.

Holland put the milk back, grabbed the dropper, then brought it with him to the living room. He sat beside Healy and sighed. “God, I hope this works."

Holland dipped the dropper into the bowl and watched it fill up with milk. As he took it out, he said, "I saw this on TV. I figured if it works for baby monkeys, it should work for humans too."

Healy wasn't surprised that his great parenting skills were from TV. It was where he got the basis of his detective work too.

Holland brought the dropper over to Huey, who was still crying and starting to squirm in his arms. He whispered, "Alright, it's okay. It's okay."

The dropper pressed onto Huey's lips, and Holland gave it a squeeze. The milk poured out, and Huey took it, drinking every drop given to him. His crying stopped and instead, his brown eyes stared up at the man holding him in silence.

"There you go," Holland said, a smile forming on his face.

He put the dropper back in the bowl and gave Huey some more milk. While the baby drank, Holland turned to Healy and saw a smile on his face as well.

"See, Healy?" he asked. He turned back to Huey and didn't take his eyes off the tiny baby in his arms. "He'll be fine."


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Disgruntlement, /dis-gruhn-tl-muhnt/, noun: a state of sulky dissatisfaction

Anyone could see that Holly March was pissed. She had a nasty scowl on her thirteen-year-old face as she walked down the street, her duffle bag slung over her shoulder. She was a girl on a mission, which was to get home and give her dad a good ass-beating.

Holly reached her house in the middle of the street and saw both Healy and Holland's cars parked outside. So they _had_ forgotten. Those fuckers.

Holly stormed up to the door and went inside, giving it a gentle slam behind her. She heard her father's voice coming from the living room and made her way over to him. If he was in the living room, that only meant one thing: He'd been sitting on his ass all day and really had forgotten. It was just like him. She should have known that he hadn't completely changed. There was still some of the old schmuck left in him.

But Healy was home too. Why hadn't he done anything about it? Something was up. And Holly was going to get to the bottom of it.

She entered the living room to see the two men huddled over what appeared to be a baby, making noises at him in high-pitched voices. Holly dropped her bag at her side and crossed her arms over her chest. The glare stayed on her face as she stared at them. She could do it all day if she wanted to.

Hearing the bag drop, Healy and Holland turned their heads at her. They were so focused on Huey, they barely acknowledged her.

"Hey, Holly," they mumbled before turning back to him.

Wait. Holly. _Shit_.

The two returned their gaze to the teenager glaring at them with eyes of fury. Their own eyes began to widen in fear, their bodies stiffening at the sight of her.

"Hey, Holly!" they repeated, trying to hide their fear in a wavering tone.

Healy asked, "H-How was the sleepover?"

"I could have told you guys all about it if you picked me up an hour ago."

God, hearing their crime out loud was even worse. They wouldn't be able to ignore it now. Saying it made it real.

"Look, Holly," Holland sighed, "We're sorry. We were coming, honest. We were just going to stop inside quick and go back out. But then..."

Fuck it. Why did he have to explain it when he could just show her the evidence? It wouldn't make anything better, but it was worth a shot. 

Holland held Huey out to her, looking more guilty than ever. Holly glanced down at the blue blanket but was unable to see what was inside. Her face changed from an angry scowl to a confused scowl.

"Is that a baby?" she asked.

"Yeah. His name's Huey."

Huey? What year was this? 1955? What kind of a name was that?

Healy spoke up, "We found him in the bushes."

God. Of course they did. That was just the kind of luck they had.

Holly asked, "Where did he come from?"

"That's the thing. We don't know. He was just...there."

"We're going to go searching for his parents tomorrow, so he's spending the night with us," Holland explained.

Holly tried to make herself look angry again, but she found her lip curling into a sneer instead. They had a reminder board on the refrigerator for a reason. It couldn't be that hard to check it. But this was Holland March she was talking to. If anything out of the ordinary fell into his path, he'd go after the new thing, abandon the task at hand, then remember it two days later than he should have. Holly shouldn't have expected any less of him.

"Whatever," she muttered, shaking her head. She picked her bag up by its strap then walked over to her room.

Stretching his neck out, Holland called, "You can tell us all about yesterday at dinner. We're all ears."

Holly ignored him as best as she could. She didn't want to hear his empty apologies. They were all the same.

She entered her bedroom, the tiny sanctuary away from the drama the rest of her life brought, and threw her bag onto her bed. Her head looked over to a desk she had to her left but did a double take upon seeing what was on it.

Among her scattered junk on the white surface was their laundry basket, filled to the brim with blankets. What the hell was it doing in her room? They already did laundry that week. Was this a cheap way to tell her to do it again? Jesus Christ, the house was falling apart. Holly thought adding Healy to the mix would fix it, but he didn't seem to be helping at all. He just added to the dysfunction they already had.

Holly stepped out of her room and called, "Why's the laundry basket in my room?"

"Oh, I forgot. Hold on one second," Holland replied. He turned to Healy and held Huey out, asking, "Do you mind holding him for a few minutes?"

Healy pushed himself back on the couch so he wouldn't be near them. He didn't want to risk Huey crying again. Holland was the one with parenting experience, not him. Let him do all the work. Healy would just watch from afar.

He saw Holland staring at him and realized he was waiting for an answer. All he could get out was a frightened, "Really?"

"Oh, come on! It's just for a minute!" Holland rolled his eyes at his friend. He thought nothing could scare Healy. As usual, he was wrong.

With a sigh, Healy held out his arms and let Huey fall into them.

Holland got up from the couch and walked over to Holly, who had returned to her crossed-arms pose. Easy, Holland. Break it to her gently.

"Well, we don't have a crib for Huey for obvious reasons, so the laundry basket was the next best thing."

"Seriously?"

"He has blankets. He'll be cozy."

"But why is it in my room?"

“Because we don't have any other rooms and I'm not forcing Healy to sleep on the couch."

"Thanks again, March," Healy called from the living room.

"No problem. I'm just looking out for you."

Oh, sure. Because the grown man with the scattered work schedule getting sleep was much more important than the teenage girl getting sleep on a school night. Holly could play this game too. She'd been negotiating with her father for years. She'd make sure she won this round.

"What if he cries? Huh? Babies do that, you know. I'm sure you didn't think of that. Won't it be hard for you guys to hear him all the way from your rooms?"

"We hear you just fine from there."

Holly tried to hide an eye roll, but she showed it anyway. She should have seen that one coming.

"But wouldn't it be more convenient if he was in one of your rooms? Like Mr. Healy's."

"Sweetheart, I'm not doing that to him."

"What about yours?"

"I want to sleep, Holly!" She didn't remember the lack of sleep she'd given her parents for two years, but Holland sure did. It was her turn to know what it felt like.

Holly cried, "I do too! I have school tomorrow! And you're just forcing this onto me!"

"Tell me that again when you have a job that provides for this family."

God, he was fucking impossible. As Holland walked back to the living room, Holly turned to her bedroom and groaned as she slammed the divider door shut.

She'd given up. Her father had won this round.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Insomnolence, /in-som-nl-uhns/, noun: sleeplessness; insomnia

The first cry came at eleven at night. Holland had been sound asleep with his snoring face smothered into his pillow. He was in the middle of a damn good dream too. Dawn Wells had been giving him a back massage. Mary Ann was hitting all the right spots, making his spine crack with every push. Holland was living for every second of it.

She was just about to release all of the tension in his neck when Huey's shrill crying echoed from down the hall. Holland jolted awake and fluttered his eyes open, picking up his head from the pillow. Nope. No Dawn Wells here. Just a crying baby that needed him. Damn kids.

Holland looked over at his alarm clock and groaned once he saw the time. Of course it had to be this early. Huey couldn't have let him sleep for at least an hour.

It had been like this with Holly too. It was like they knew just when he was about to pass out for the night. Holland was sure babies had some kind of radar or something. In twenty years, science would prove it. Then who'll be the ones laughing at him?

Holland got out of bed and threw on a red velvet robe he kept on his bedpost. He didn't bother tying it. He was just getting Huey then coming back to his room. Besides, he wouldn't see Healy and have to hear him complain about him tying it. Who the fuck was he to tell him how to live his life? It was his damn house. When Healy got his own house and let him move in, then he could make the rules.

"And so it begins," Holland mumbled as he trudged out of the room and rubbed his eyes.

He reached Holly's room and found Huey crying among the blankets that surrounded him in the basket. Holland reached in and picked him up, cradling him in his arms.

"Shhhh, it's okay," he whispered as he walked back to his room. Once inside, he said, "It's okay, Huey. Mr. March has got you. It's okay. Shhhh."

It wasn't long before Healy poked his head in the doorway, his eyes barely open. He greeted, "What's wrong?”

"Nothing. It's just the usual crying at night."

"Oh."

Healy stepped inside and stood across from his friend, watching him pace while bouncing Huey. He felt bad that he wasn't doing anything. He didn't want Holland to have to do all the work. He lived here too. The least he could do was act like it.

"D-Do you want me to help?" he asked.

Holland shook his head and waved his hand at him. Well, he waved the best that he could. He was holding a six-pound baby in his arms, so a full wave was out of the question. The best he could do was move his hand for a second then place it back under Huey.

His voice ragged, he replied, "No, no, it's fine."

"Do you think he needs something?"

"No, this happens." Well, time for the second parenting lesson of the day. "Babies don't always cry because they need something. Sometimes, they just want you to hold them. So this is the best we can do."

Healy shrugged to himself. That seemed easy enough. Besides, it was less work for him. He didn't want to have to go through the hassle of getting milk again. Not at this hour.

Healy took a step forward and watched Huey cry inside Holland's arms. It was hard to hide the smirk forming on his face. He had to admit that the kid had a good pair of lungs.

"It's okay. It's okay," Holland soothed. Jesus Christ. The amount of times he'd said those two words today. Was this what his life had come to now?

Just then, the crying began to slow down until it turned into cooing. Huey curled himself into Holland's chest and fell back asleep on his arm. Thank God. Holland didn't know how much more he could take.

He tilted his head up and let out a sigh. "See? I told you. You just have to let it pass."

"So that's it? He's done for the night?"

God dammit, Healy. He fucking jinxed it. Now they'd never sleep.

Holland didn't let the comment phase him. He was too tired to yell at him. Instead, he walked out of the room and said, "Fingers crossed."

Holland returned to Holly's room and set Huey down, placing him back in the basket. He kissed his forehead and whispered, "Sleep tight."

Holland didn't look back as he returned to his room. Maybe Healy was right. Maybe the kid would stay asleep for good. They were always unpredictable.

Holland didn't want to think about it anymore. All he wanted now was the sweet release of sleep.

~

It happened again at one o'clock. Holland wasn't able to fall back asleep after bringing Huey back. Sure, he managed to close his eyes, but Dawn Wells never came back. All he found was darkness for two hours.

Holland opened his eyes once he heard Huey and stared at the ceiling. God. He knew it was going to happen again. Thanks a lot, Healy.

Holland looked at the clock then sighed as he got out of bed. He threw the robe back on and walked to Holly's room. The routine started again as he picked Huey up and carried him back to his room.

As he paced about the floor, Holland shook his head with a grimace. He thought he'd never have to do this again after the first time thirteen years before. He should have known better. Life always had a way of biting him in the ass.

Holland soon heard Healy's footsteps from across the way and saw his friend enter the room once more.

"Why is he up again?" he asked with a hint of worry.

"I don't know. They do this. Calming him down is all we have."

Healy didn't like that he wasn't doing anything to help. Holland had already done this once in his life. He shouldn't have to do it again. Besides, the only way he would really learn how to handle babies was to be around one.

Healy held out his arms and said, "Let me try."

Holland had to be dreaming because he knew Healy hadn't just offered to help. He practically had a heart attack when Huey was crying in his arms. And now, he wanted to try? Bullshit.

Through his half-open eyes, Holland looked over and saw Healy waiting for him to hand over the baby. Shit. He was serious about this.

"Are you sure, Healy?"

"Yeah, yeah, it's fine."

It wasn't fine. Healy was still terrified. He was just making the biggest bluff of his life.

Holland shrugged at his friend. It was his funeral. "Be my guest."

He handed Huey over, and Healy cradled him in his arms. He couldn't help but smile down at him. God, he really was tiny, wasn't he? How could anyone ever be so small? The little guy was a miracle to Healy. Focus, Jack. You have a job to do.

Healy shook his head and returned to the task at hand. He tried to remember all that Holland did with him earlier. He gave Huey a little bounce, right? Was that what you were supposed to do? It had to be.

Healy began to bounce Huey in his arms, whispering, "Shhhh, hey, hey. Shhhh."

Just like that, Huey quieted down and fell back asleep. Huh. That hadn't been so bad after all. Healy was feeling pretty damn proud of himself. It looked like he could add crying babies to the list of things he could handle.

"Hey. I did it," he said as he cracked a smile.

He looked over at Holland but was surprised to find his friend was back in bed. He must have gone back once he handed Huey over. Ah, let him sleep. He deserved it.

Healy shook his head at Holland then left the room. He brought Huey back to Holly's room and put him back inside the basket. He hovered over him for a moment, not really sure what to do next. The only thing he thought of was tapping the rim of the basket. It was his way of saying, "There, there. You're alright."

Healy waited to see if he would wake up again, but Huey didn't stir. Phew. No more disasters tonight.

Healy heaved a quick sigh then returned to his room. Hopefully, this would be the last time.

~

It wasn't.

Holland heard him crying down the hall and opened his eyes. Jesus Christ. He just wouldn't catch him a break, would he?

Holland turned over and looked at the clock. 1:30. Only a half hour. Instead of getting up, Holland closed his eyes and let out a quiet sob. This night was going down as one of the top ten worst nights of his life.

His own crying only lasted for a couple of seconds, as he knew he had to take care of Huey. Holland did everything he had to do for the third time that night: Get up, robe, get Huey, go back.

He never noticed Holly as he left the room. She was turned away from her father, eyes wide open and a glare on her face. Saying she was pissed was the understatement of the year.

The moment Holland returned to his room, Healy did as well. His eyes started to look like they would close at any minute.

Healy opened his mouth to say something, but Holland cut in, "He's fine, Healy."

Healy closed his eyes and nodded to himself. That answered that.

He sighed, "Jesus Christ. What's with this kid?"

"Healy, he's a newborn. This is normal. I don't know what you want me to tell you."

"Well, there must be something we can do. I mean, this is the third time now."

"Thanks, Captain Obvious."

Healy would have been offended, but he was too tired to feel anything. Instead, he leaned up against the wall and stared into the distance.

Resuming his pacing, Holland mumbled, "I think...I think he just wants his mom."

"Well, he shouldn't have to worry. We'll find her tomorrow. It'll be fine."

"He doesn't know that, Healy. He doesn't know anything."

"Right, right."

God, this was all so new to him. Healy didn't like feeling so inexperienced with babies. There was a lot of things he didn't know about, but this one felt more important. Why couldn't his old man have come back long enough to give him a younger sibling? He wouldn't be feeling like such a dumbass if he did.

As Healy mentally beat himself up and tried not to pass out at the same time, he thought he heard a song being sung somewhere in the room.

_Stars shining bright above you._

_Night breezes seem to whisper, “I love you.”_

_Birds singing in the sycamore tree._

_Dream a little dream of me._

Healy looked over and found it coming from Holland, who was singing to Huey during his pacing.

Holland felt his friend's eyes on him, causing him to look over. Healy was looking at him like he had never heard him sing before. Did their car ride that morning mean nothing to him?

"I used to sing this to Holly when she was a baby."

"Oh."

Truth be told, Healy didn't care either way if Holland was singing to Huey. He was just really fucking tired.

Holland looked down at Huey and noticed that he started quieting down. He still had a choked up sob here and there, but it was working. Maybe this would be it for the night.

Holland looked over at Healy and said, "You can go back to bed. I got him."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I think the song's working."

"Okay...Okay."

As Healy trudged out of the room, Holland called, "Good night."

"Night."

Holland sat on the edge of his bed and kept his eyes on Huey. He started to rock back and forth and rubbed his finger on the baby's cheek. He couldn't stop now. They were almost there.

Holland then took a small breath and continued with the song.

_Say, “Nighty night” and kiss me._

_Just hold me tight and tell me you’ll miss me._

_While I’m alone and blue as can be,_

_Dream a little dream of me._

_Stars fading, but I linger on, dear,_

_Still craving your kiss._

_I’m longing to linger ‘till dawn, dear,_

_Just saying this._

_Sweet dreams ‘till sunbeams find you._

_Sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you._

_But in your dreams, whatever they be,_

_Dream a little dream of me._

There. He did it. Huey had fallen back asleep.

Holland didn't bring him back right away. He continued rocking and kept his eyes on him for a minute.

He whispered, "Yeah, you're okay, Huey." And he meant it.

A smile formed on his face as he added, "You're just scared. I know. But you'll be okay. You got Mr. March and Mr. Healy protecting you now. We'll keep you safe. Don't you worry, Huey. We're going to find your parents tomorrow."

 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ipseity, /ip-say-tee/, noun: individual identity; selfhood

"Are you sure there haven't been any babies stolen in the past few days?" Holland asked the hospital clerk he stood before. He held Huey in his arms while Healy stood next to him, his arms resting on the marble countertop.

Holland found himself blinking several times the longer they stood there. The amount of white in one room was death to the eyes. The least they could do was add another color to brighten up the place. 

The clerk, a platinum blonde with rosy cheeks and looked like she had just come straight out of college, shook her head with a scrunched-up lip. "Yes, I'm afraid we haven't had any reports like that this month."

Healy and Holland lowered their heads with a sigh. Another dead end.

Healy was the first to pick up his head and asked, "What about boys? Have you checked out any baby boys this week?"

"No, I'm sorry. The only babies that have left this week were girls."

Healy looked away and banged his fist against the counter. The sound startled him, causing him to jump back and pat his hand against where he hit. He hadn't meant to do that. He didn't know his own strength most of the time.

With a sigh, Holland stated, "Thank you anyway."

"I'm sorry I couldn't be more help."

"It's okay. We appreciate it," Healy said with a polite smile that couldn't hide its disappointment.

As the men walked out, the clerk called, "Good luck with your case!"

"Thank you!"

The two left the hospital and made their way back to Healy's car. Once inside, Healy started it up, and they were back on the road. Holland looked out the backseat window and watched the city fly by, sighing every few seconds.

"I don't believe it. Six fucking hospitals in this city and not one of them had any missing kids," he said. "Or even any boys checked out! How could every pregnant woman in L.A. somehow have a girl this week? I don't even think that's possible!"

"This is all just too weird," Healy spoke up.

"Weird? Healy, this is more than weird. It's fucking suspicious."

Healy rolled his eyes as he drove under a green light. Here he went again.

Holland was always suspicious of something in his life. He always had some hare-brained idea that every little thing in his life couldn't be trusted. He wouldn't even have a stick of gum because he thought the manufacturers were out to get him.

"Well, what do you think this could be, March? Do you think the hospitals in this city are a part of some...baby smuggling ring or something?"

Holland snapped his fingers and smirked at his friend. "Now we're getting somewhere."

Healy rolled his eyes again, this time with a groan. "I was joking, March."

"Hey, with the shit we've seen, it could be possible."

Healy was sick of arguing with him, but he had to admit that Holland had a point. They'd seen some weird shit over the past five months. Finding Huey in the bushes was ranked under the roller-skating grandma.

Holland shook his head as he turned away from the window. "I guess Huey's going to be staying with us for another day." He looked down at the sleeping baby cradled in his arms and sighed. "Where'd you come from, little guy?”

Healy asked, "So where are we going now?"

"The one place where we can get the word out about him."

~

Officer William Mulroney sat at the front desk of the LAPD, sifting through paperwork his boss had slapped into his hands that morning. It wasn't anything to write home about. It was just police reports on car accidents from the past week. They were all the same, anyway: Some guy on drugs driving where he wasn't supposed to and crashing into some old lady's car. It happened every fucking day in the city.

Mulroney was getting sick of it. Just once, he wanted his boss to give him something with substance. He didn't want to be the station's proofreader on car accidents anymore. Luckily, his big break came through the front door just after noon.

Mulroney heard it open and picked his head up to see two familiar faces. Healy and Holland stopped by every other week to ask for information on a case. Mulroney had always liked Holland. They were friends back when Holland was on the force. Even after that damn no-fault divorce, they kept in touch and still worked together. Mulroney didn't think Holland's new friend was bad either. He was nice to him, so what was wrong about that?

Mulroney took to his feet as they approached his desk and greeted, "Well, if it isn't my two favorite private detectives."

"Mulroney. My favorite cop," Holland said with a smile.

"Hey, Healy. How you doing?"

"Fine, fine."

Healy never knew what to say around Mulroney. He was more Holland's friend than his. Healy just felt like he was being a third wheel while Holland did most of the talking. He didn't mind that part, though. He could just jump in when he felt like it.

Mulroney took notice of Huey and had to hold back a chuckle. "What? Who's this? You didn't tell me you've been screwing somebody, March."

"Oh ha ha, very funny. He's not mine. He's why we're here, actually."

"Okay, so who is he?"

"That's the thing. We don't know," Healy spoke up. "He was just...there. In the bushes."

Hold on. Did Mulroney hear that correctly?

With a raised eyebrow, he asked, "In where?"

"Long story," Holland cut in. "The point is, someone left him at our house yesterday, and we don't know who. We've searched every fucking hospital in this city, and no one knows who he is. So we need you to make some posters and place them around the city. Or put an ad in the newspaper. I don’t know. Anything to get the word out."

Finally, some action. "Easy enough. Let's get right on it."

Mulroney sat back down and pushed his chair over to a typewriter on the side of the desk. He placed a piece of paper inside then started typing, "FOUND: BABY." He turned a knob on the typewriter so he could leave a space in the middle of the page.

Before he typed again, he asked, "What color's his hair?"

"Brown."

"And the eyes?"

"They're brown too."

Mulroney scoffed as he typed. "Oh, this'll be easy, March. A brown-haired, brown-eyed boy. They aren't common in this city at all."

"Oh, shut up. This is serious."

"Sorry, sorry. Okay, what's your address again?"

"Come on, Mulroney. You should know this." God. What kind of a friend was he?

"I don't know everyone on the force's addresses off the top of my head, March."

"Don't you still have my information on file?"

"All the way at the back of the station. Yeah, I'll just go there right now in the middle of your life-and-death case."

"Just tell it to him, March," Healy said. He was getting tired of this bullshit. Holland didn't have to be so difficult with people, but it was like an impulse for him. He just had to say the first thing on his mind at every minute.

"Jesus Christ," Holland muttered as he threw his head back. He looked back at Mulroney and said, "1271 Stafford Drive."

"Thank you," the cop replied as he typed it in. "Was that so hard? Okay, yesterday was the 18th...'If you know him, please contact Holland March at-'...What's your phone number?"

"Oh my god, here." Holland turned to Healy and said, "Hold him for a second."

Healy took Huey into his arms while Holland pulled out his wallet. He opened it up then pulled out a small white card and handed it over to Mulroney.

"My business card. It has all my information on it. Now you won't have to ask for it anymore."

Mulroney stared at the card with narrowed eyes. Jesus Christ. It looked professional and everything. What kind of money did Holland have to get this?

"When did you get this?" he asked.

"I've had these for years."

"Shit. I should get one of these."

Mulroney typed in the phone number then took the paper out of the typewriter. "Alright, just give me one second..."

He got out of the chair then bent down underneath the desk. Healy and Holland tried to look over, but they didn't have to wait for long.

Mulroney came back up with a Polaroid camera in hand and declared, "Okay, let me get a picture of the little guy so I can put it on the poster."

"Oh, yeah. Sure."

Holland took Huey back and made his way behind the desk. Mulroney stood before them and found himself smiling at the baby.

"Awwww, what a cute little guy."

"I know, right? I almost wish he _was_ my kid."

"Alright, little fella. I'm just going to take one picture of you."

Mulroney raised the camera to his face and snapped a picture. It printed out of the camera and developed to be a clear shot of the sleeping Huey.

"Got it," he said.

"Great." Holland looked down at Huey and was surprised to find that he was asleep. "Look at that. He didn't even make a peep."

"Maybe he'll actually sleep tonight," Healy remarked.

His friend sighed. "God, I hope so."

While Holland went back to Healy's side, Mulroney pressed the picture into the empty space on the poster. He explained, "Alright, I should have a hundred of these printed and posted around the city within the hour. I’ll submit it to every paper that I can contact too."

"Great. Thanks so much, Mulroney," Holland said.

"Anytime. I hope you find this kid's parents."

"Thanks. So do we," Healy said.

The two men then left the station, leaving Mulroney to the posters. The cop couldn't help but smile as he brought it to the copy machine. He finally had real work to do.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Imbibe, /im-bahyb/, verb: to take or receive into the mind as knowledge, ideas, or the like

The two men were back on the road, trying to figure out where the hell to go next. Holland was quick to think of a place, so he acted as Healy's map from the backseat.

"Turn left at the light."

"Why can't you just tell me where the hell we're going, March?"

"Because you'll see in a minute. Just turn left."

Healy sighed as he merged into the left lane. Holland was always leading him on wild goose chases, and they were never fun. With the day they'd been having, he was in no mood to go anywhere else, especially with Huey. But he didn't really have a choice in the matter, so it was off to Mystery Location #2.

Healy turned onto the next street, which was only more shops and businesses in the city they called home. Holland said, "Alright, now pull over."

Christ, where the fuck were they going?

Healy pulled over and looked to the side at what they were parked before. It was nothing but a run-of-the-mill drugstore, the dirty window under the faded awning showing an empty store lined with shelves and the color white inside.

It was the last place Healy expected to go. Still, it seemed odd. They already did their weekly shopping a few days before. What had Holland forgotten now?

"March, why are we here?" he asked as they got out.

"Well, since Huey's staying a little longer, we have to actually get stuff for him now. I can't keep going through the trouble of a dropper with him when he's hungry. So I'm going to run in quick and get them."

Holland began to hand Huey over to Healy, who was surprised by the sudden task placed onto him. "Can you watch Huey out here while I go in?"

"Wait, wait, wait. Why can't I go in?"

"Who's going to watch the car?"

Was he fucking serious? "March, the car's fine. No one's here."

"That's how they get you. They make you think you're alone."

Jesus Christ. Of all the detectives Healy had to be stuck with for the rest of his life, it was the neurotic one.

"Well, shouldn't I go in too? Shouldn't I, you know, see what you're getting? It's part of the, uh, the learning experience. Like you said."

Holland turned away from his friend. He had him there. He didn't want to admit it, though.

"Just stay out here. Please. I'll be five minutes. I know what I need."

Without another word, Holland went inside, leaving Healy to stand in front of the car with a newborn baby in his arms. In all his years, he never expected to be in that specific situation. Life was funny like that.

Healy looked at Huey in his arms and felt a smile form on his face. "I guess it's just you and me, little fella," he said.

He gave Huey a small bounce, causing him to stir. The baby began to move in his arms, shifting his head and making small cooing noises.

Shit. Please don't cry. That was the last thing Healy needed. He could handle calming him down at the house, but they were in public now. He wasn't ready for that test yet.

Cringing, Healy gave him another bounce and tried to quiet him down. "Shhhhh, shh shh shh, hey. Hey, hey, shhhhhh," he said.

Healy seemed to have a magic touch because Huey fell back asleep in an instant. He exhaled the breath he had been holding once he saw the baby snuggle back into his chest. Mission accomplished.

"That's it. You're okay," he soothed. "We're just waiting for Mr. March to come back. You're good, Huey."

Healy remembered the car and realized he had another job to do while he waited. He took a quick glance back and found his car still there, untouched and not stolen. Healy made a quiet sigh. It was the easiest job he'd ever had.

Just then, the drugstore opened, and Holland stepped out with two plastic bags filled to the brim in his arms. "Alright, we got everything we need now," he greeted. Throwing the bags into the backseat, he asked, "How's Huey?"

"He's fine. He's been asleep the whole time."

"Good, good. He'll stay like that for the rest of the day. That's all newborns do."

Healy shrugged at the explanation. Easy enough.

Once he shut the door, Holland held out his hand and said, "Give me your keys."

Healy made a sneer that looked like Holland had just asked him to donate a kidney. "Excuse me?"

"Well, you have Huey now. I've been holding him all day. It's your turn. Let me drive."

So this had been his plan all along. Asshole.

"It's my car!"

"We're going home! It's a ten-minute drive! This is the only time I'll ask you to do this. Please. I can't feel my arms."

Healy glared at his friend and saw the desperation on his face. Or maybe that was his normal face. Either way, Holland wanted this.

Healy shook his head and looked at the sky. Dear God, let him not regret this.

"The keys are in my jacket pocket."

"Great, thanks."

Holland reached into the blue leather pocket and fished out the keys. As he walked to the driver's seat, he called, "You're the best, Healy!"

"Yeah, yeah." Yeah, just keep kissing ass until the next favor, March.

Healy reached out his hand to open the car door and went inside. He was pretty impressed that he could do it without dropping Huey. Maybe he was doing a good job after all.

Once they were set, Holland pushed on the gas pedal a little too hard, and the car sped off to the suburbs.

~

Huey started crying the moment they pulled up to the house.

Holland tilted his head back and groaned as he parked along the street. "We almost had him," he muttered.

Healy stepped out of the car and tried to bounce Huey in his arms. He said, "Hey. What's the matter, little guy?"

"He's probably hungry," Holland replied as he walked past his friend. He carried the bags in his arms and wished Healy could take one. But he had Huey, and Holland wasn't going to make him do that. He wasn't an asshole. Well, he didn't think he was.

"We've been going at it all day that I almost forgot to feed him. Luckily, we have the supplies now to get the job done."

Holland held up one of the bags and looked back at Healy, showing off how prepared he was.

Healy asked, "You got a bottle?"

"Sure did. We're real babysitters now."

"Great." Healy tried to hide his nerves when he said it, but they couldn't be stopped.

Holland opened the door, and the two stepped inside with Healy still trying to hush Huey. As he brought the bags into the kitchen, Holland asked, "Hey, since you're holding him, do you want to feed him this time?"

The next lesson? So soon? Healy didn't think he was in the right mental state to hear more about the Care and Keeping of Babies. Then again, he was realizing that he might never be. They would come whether he wanted them to or not. That seemed like the most important lesson of all.

Healy sighed. "I don't really have a choice, do I?"

"You catch on quick. Come here."

Healy walked over to Holland, who was standing before the stove. He'd just finished pouring the milk into the bottle and had set a small pot on the stove. What the hell did they need this for? They didn't use the stove yesterday. Huey did fine without it before. All he wanted was something to eat and fast.

"Okay, now that we actually have a bottle, we can give Huey warm milk," Holland explained. He placed the bottle in the pot and turned on the stove, letting out a quiet, "Yay!"

"Is that what he's supposed to have?"

"It's preferred, yeah. Although, I don't know why. I think there's some bullshit scientific reason behind it, but I don't fucking care. The point is you got to do it. It's very easy. You just fill up the bottle, place it on the stove, and wait for it to heat up."

Holland stepped back from the stove and crossed his arms, smiling at his work. He was pretty damn proud of it. He hadn't needed to do this in years, but he still had it. Way to go, Holland.

There would have been silence between the two while they waited if Huey wasn't crying. Healy thought it might have gotten louder since they entered the house. That, or it just felt like it had been going on for ages. Either way, the kid had a pair of lungs. Healy knew that much.

"So how long do we have to wait?" he asked.

"About a minute or so."

"Jesus Christ. That long?"

"A minute's not that long, Healy." Fucking drama queen.

"It is when all you have is this-" Healy held out Huey, who was still going at it, at Holland with a glare. "-to pass the time."

"Stoves take a while to heat up. What do you want me to do?"

"Put it in the microwave."

"No, it'll get too hot. Do you want Huey to burn his tongue?"

"No, but I'd like to feed him as soon as possible."

"Well, you have to wait for the goddamn stove!"

Healy looked at Huey and kept bouncing him up and down. Yup. He had definitely gotten louder.

"I don't think we're helping," he said.

Holland placed his hand on his forehead and sighed. "You know what? I think it's done."

He turned off the stove and took the bottle out, feeling the heat against his palm. Thank God. He was in no mood to turn the stove back on.

"Okay, so it feels warm, but here's the real test. You got to hold out your wrist and give the bottle a little squeeze to feel it for yourself."

Healy looked away and rolled his eyes. They really were dragging this out, weren't they? Huey must have thought they were starving him. Healy gave the baby an apologetic look to help, but he didn't see it. He was still crying.

Healy looked back to see Holland holding out his wrist and squeezing the bottle onto it. He stared at the milk on his skin for a second then stated, "It's good. Go sit."

The two made their way to the table and sat down with Healy still trying to quiet Huey down. Holland handed over the bottle and declared, "Knock yourself out."

Healy gripped onto the bottle and tried to keep Huey cradled in his arms at the same time. He placed the bottle on the baby's lips and hushed, "It's okay. It's okay."

Finally quiet, Huey drank his milk and let his eyes close once more.

The two men tilted their heads back and let out a loud sigh. It was over. They did it.

"And there you go," Holland said. "Easy, right?"

"Yeah, it was." Healy looked down at Huey and found himself smiling at him. "He's pretty cute like this."

"Isn't he? He's all tiny and quiet."

Huey then made a small cooing sound and tried to push himself away from the bottle.

"All done, Huey?" Healy asked. He pulled the bottle away and placed it on the table, saying, "That was fast."

"I guess he was really hungry after all."

Holland's eyes glanced between Healy standing up and the lone bottle on the table. He pieced the two together and realized that they weren't through yet.

"Wait!" he cried.

Healy almost jumped from it, but he kept his cool. Sure, it scared him, but he wasn't as skittish as Holland. The man could leap ten feet in the air from the sound of water dripping.

Taking a breath, Healy asked, "What?"

"Sit back down. I almost forgot."

Of course there was another part to the lesson. This just couldn't be a simple job. Healy should have seen this coming. He knew by now that none of their jobs would ever be simple.

Once he sat back down, he waited for Part Two of Holland's lesson.

"You have to burp him."

"I have to what?"

"You know, you place him on your chest, pat him on the back a few times, and wait for him to burp. You have to do it every time you feed him. It, like, releases gas or something. I don't know. I think that's what my wife said. It's been a while."

Healy gave his friend a blank stare, blinking a few times while looking at him. He didn't know what to do with all of the information that was just thrown at him. He stammered, "Uh...o-okay. Yeah."

Healy shifted Huey in his arms and placed him on his chest, his tiny head resting over his shoulder. "Like this?"

"Yup."

"Alright."

Healy then pat his hand against Huey's back. He tried not to be too hard on the little guy. After all, he was still a newborn. He just had to make small and slow pats.

Healy turned to Holland and waited for a look of approval. Now, Holland was the one with the blank face.

"It's not rocket science, Healy."

"It fucking feels like it!"

"Look, you're thinking about this too hard. Just...Just pat his back. It's not that difficult."

Healy took a small breath and continued patting, this time quicker than before. It wasn't long before Huey let out a small burp and snuggled into Healy's shoulder.

Healy grinned from ear to ear and looked over at Holland, who had the same look.

"I did it," he said.

"Look at that. You're a natural."

Holland then stood up and walked out of the kitchen, giving Healy a pat on the shoulder before he left.

Healy looked down at Huey and continued to smile at the sleeping baby. He was better at this whole babysitting thing than he thought.

"Yeah. I guess I am."

~

Healy was the first one to hear Huey crying that night. He seemed to be the only one that heard it because Holland didn't get up. And he wasn't going to make Holly deal with Huey. That left him to be the one to do it.

Healy got out of bed and made his way to the room in a slow trudge. He walked inside and picked Huey up from his makeshift bed, taking him into his arms.

"Shhhhh, alright, alright," he soothed. "What's up, Huey?"

Healy could barely keep his eyes open, let alone try to calm him down. He didn't know how the fuck other parents did it. He had to give them more respect.

Healy found himself standing before the kitchen, bouncing Huey in the doorway. He looked down at the baby and shrugged to himself. He had all this new knowledge now from the afternoon. It wouldn't hurt to try it out.

"Maybe you're hungry," Healy said to Huey. He didn't know why he did. Huey wasn't going to answer him.

Healy walked into the kitchen, turned the light on, and found the bottle on the counter. It was still half-filled with milk, so he didn't have to go through the hassle of filling it up again. The pot was still on the stove too. It was Healy's lucky night.

He put the bottle in the pot and turned on the stove, waiting for it to heat up. Healy continued to try quieting Huey down, and it was almost working. Huey's crying became softer and slower, but it wasn't enough to put him to sleep. Hopefully, the bottle would help.

When he got tired of shushing him, Healy turned off the stove and grabbed Huey's bottle. "Alright, I think it's ready," he said.

He started walking over to the kitchen bar but stopped when he remembered something. Shit. He was so close.

"Almost forgot to check it," Healy said to the baby. Why the fuck did he keep expecting Huey to answer? Even if he could talk, he was too busy crying to talk back. All he wanted was the bottle Healy was keeping from him.

Healy held out his wrist as best as he could and squirted the milk onto it. He felt himself sneer as the warm milk touched his wrist. It just didn't feel natural. But at least it was ready.

Healy let out the breath he was holding. "Okay.”

He walked over to the kitchen bar and sat on a chair in front of it. He placed the bottle in Huey's mouth, and he took it right away.

While the baby drank, Healy whispered, "That's it. That's it."

"You're really good with him," a new voice greeted from behind.

Healy spun his chair around and found Holly watching him from her bedroom doorway.

He smiled at her and replied, "Thanks." He was still terrified inside, but at least he could pull off hiding it.

"You really didn't find anything at the hospitals today?"

"Nothing. No one knows who he is."

"That's weird."

"Yeah. Weird."

Weird? Fucking suspicious was more like it. Something was up with Huey, but they would get to the bottom of it. He could count on the Nice Guys. Well, if he could count.

Huey eventually finished the bottle, leading Healy to place him on his chest and pat his back.

Not moving in her place, Holly asked, "So what are you going to do tomorrow?"

"Your dad thinks we should take him to the doctor. He just wants to make sure Huey's healthy. We wouldn't want to return an unhealthy baby to his parents. So we're going to do that then...wait for someone to answer our ads, I guess."

"Oh. Okay. Hopefully, someone does soon."

Unlike Healy, Holly wasn't as good at hiding how she really felt. She thought she was sounding like her usual, optimistic self, but Healy could hear the annoyance in her tone. She could really a grudge, couldn't she?

He sighed. "Holly, I know you're still upset about yesterday. It won't mean anything, but I really am sorry about that. I'll make sure we put up a reminder next time. I promise."

"It's fine. It's not you I'm angry with."

Firing one of her signature glares, Holly crossed her arms and turned back into her room.

Healy watched her go with a scrunched-up lip. He turned back to Huey and found him asleep on his chest. Hopefully, he'd stay that way.

Healy looked ahead at the dark house he sat in and sighed. He didn't care about the lack of sleep anymore. He just wanted some answers.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aesculapian, /es-kyuh-ley-pee-uhn/, noun: a physician; doctor

Healy and Holland were the only men in the pediatrician's waiting room. Well, some of the kids around them were probably boys. And Huey was there too. Besides that, they were the only adult men in the cramped square room with peach-colored walls.

Holland noticed Huey squirming in his arms while he bounced him. It was probably from all the kids that were fussing around them or playing with the waiting room toys. Damn kids. He hoped Huey wouldn't get like that when he was their age.

Looking down at the baby, he soothed, "Shhhh, I know, I know. There's so many people. I know. You're okay, though. You're okay. We're just waiting for the nice doctor to arrive."

Once Huey calmed down, Holland looked over at his friend sitting beside him. Healy was looking straight ahead, his folded hands planted on his shaking right leg. And Holland thought _he_ was the nervous type. 

"Jesus Christ, Healy," he hissed. "What's got you so worked up? You're not the one that the doctor's examining."

Healy never liked it when Holland brushed away his problems. He especially didn't like it when he was under some stress. He would have broken Holland's arm again then and there, but there were kids around. Little kids. They didn't need to be exposed to that.

"I'm just nervous, is all."

"Yeah, no shit, Sherlock. But _why_ are you nervous?"

God dammit. Healy didn't like these new-parent jitters. They weren't even excited jitters. They were telling him about every possible thing that could go wrong with Huey. Did every parent go through this? He fucking hoped not. If he had a kid years before, forget it. His ex-wife would have dumped him much earlier.

Healy released his hands and turned to his friend with a sigh. "I'm just scared something's wrong with Huey. Something that we didn't see before. I mean, we don't know how long he was in those bushes. What if he caught something in there and he's been sick right under our noses?"

God, Healy was such a dad. It made Holland wonder if he had been like that with Holly. Nah, he was fine. He had been pretty calm during those first couple of years. Alright, he'd freaked out several times. But other than that, cool as a cucumber.

Holland gave Healy his soft blue eyes that could calm someone down in an instant. "Healy, relax. Huey's fine. If he was sick, we would have noticed by now. That's the whole reason we're here. The doctor's going to tell us how healthy he is. And if they find out he's sick, they'll tell us what to do."

Healy turned away again and heaved a large sigh. Holland's words had helped a little. The fear was still nagging, but it wasn't as noticeable as before.

Holland continued, "Calm down, big guy. He's going to be alright."

Big guy? That was a new one. Healy didn't know if he liked it or not. Maybe if Holland said it again, he would figure it out.

Just then, a woman with short blonde hair in waves poked her head out the door. A file poked its way from under her head, letting everyone know what she was there for.

"Huey!" she called with a winning smile.

Finally. They'd been waiting fifteen minutes. Hopefully, the rest of the visit would be quick.

Healy and Holland stood up and followed the woman through the door. They walked through a peach-colored hall where dark green doors were lined along each side.

Healy was more focused on what was between the doors. His eyes kept looking at the posters that hung on the walls. Most of them were detailed drawings of body parts, like the lungs and stomach, and how to keep them in "proper health." Yeesh. That was the last thing Healy wanted to see.

But it was the poster labeled "What to do if your child is choking" that made him freeze in the hall. Because he needed to be even more worried about Huey's health than he already was. God, he hoped they wouldn't accidentally kill him. That'd be their luck.

Healy then looked ahead and saw how far behind he was from the others. Shit. The fucking posters had distracted him. Although, that was probably why they were there in the first place.

Healy ran up to the others and joined Holland's side just as they entered the exam room. Why was peach the only color in the goddamn facility? With the amount of patients they had, they could at least afford to get more than one. The only way Healy and Holland could figure out that they were in a new room was the gray exam table covered in white paper and the counter beside it covered with a jar of q-tips, a sink, and what appeared to be a rack of business cards.

With Huey still in his arms, Holland sat down on the exam table and heard the paper crinkle underneath him. He was used to that sound. He practically heard it twice a month with the amount of times he got injured.

The nurse faced the two men from the other side of the room with the file in her hands. She had on the type of smile that said she didn't want to be there but would still try to be polite to her patients.

"Okay, so this is Huey March?" she asked.

Smiling at him, Holland replied, "Yup, this is him."

"And am I correct to assume that you're his father?"

Shit. They hadn't even considered getting asked that. They hadn't had to at the hospitals since they told them that they were looking for his parents. They just wanted to get Huey checked out and be told he was healthy. Now they had to play Family with him? Christ, it never ended with the kid.

Realizing he'd left the nurse hanging, Holland said, "Uh, y-yes. Yes, he's...he's my kid."

"Great. I just need to know that for the paperwork."

She wrote something down in her file then looked over at Healy. She didn't seem to notice how he'd broken into a sweat. He knew exactly where this visit was heading, and it was nowhere good.

"And who have we brought to help with little Huey today?" the nurse asked in a voice that sounded too condescending for his taste.

"I'm a business associate of the father." It wasn't a lie, after all. If they were talking about Holly.

Healy shook the nurse's hand with a polite smile, trying to hide how clammy it was.

"Great," she said. Turning back to Holland, she asked, "Is Huey your first, Mr. March?"

"No, he's my second. So I, uh, pretty much know the drill."

"Oh, excellent. So I don't have to give the 'First Kid Talk.'"

"Nope. I've been there before."

The two chuckled at each other, and Healy soon joined in. His chuckle was more bitter, though. He was hoping they would get the First Kid Talk. Unlike Holland, it _was_ his first, and he'd take all the information he could get.

Turning back to her file, the nurse said, "So I figured we could start with checking his weight and height. That's the routine first step, so if it's alright, Mr. March, I can take Huey off your hands and get that done."

"Oh, yeah, sure." Holland held Huey out, and the nurse took him into her arms.

The moment his arms were free, the separation anxiety kicked in. If they weren't so goddamn slow in the facility, he could have Huey back in five seconds and go back to protecting him. But now, complete strangers were holding the kid, and he didn't like it at all.

"Hi, Huey," the nurse whispered. "Don't you worry. I'm just going to see how big you are, then you'll go right back to your daddy."

Holland's new title struck something in him once he heard it. He hadn't thought of himself as Huey's dad. He was just someone looking after him. His real dad was somewhere in L.A. looking everywhere for him. But Huey needed a dad right now. And Holland was the only option he had. He might as well take it in stride.

The nurse unwrapped Huey's blanket and placed him on a scale, watching him squirm and coo in place.

"Alright, alright," she soothed with a small chuckle. "I know. This is all very new. But it'll only take a moment, little guy."

The nurse looked at the final weight and wrote it down. "Five pounds, eleven ounces," she recited. "Ooo, you're a tiny little fella!"

Five pounds? Shit, they knew Huey was small, but they didn't know he was _that_ small.

The nurse took Huey off the scale and placed him on top of the blanket. The kid sure was a mover. He never stopped waving his arms once she set him down.

"Alright, now let's see how tall you are, Huey," she said.

The nurse reached into her pocket and pulled out a tape measure. It was one of the pink wraparound ones that were normally used to measure people. It made sense.

The nurse measured Huey from head to toe and took a look at what the final measurement said. "Seventeen and a half. And the head is..." She then wrapped the tape measure around Huey's head despite his flinching. "Thirteen and a half. That's pretty normal."

Healy exhaled to himself when he heard those three words. Thank God he was okay.

The nurse wrapped Huey back in the blanket then handed him back to Holland. "Here you are, Mr. March.”

Holland replied, "Thank you very much." He turned to Huey and said, "Good job, Huey. Oh, you're such a good boy."

"Now if I could just have his birth certificate so I can compare the delivery weight and height, we'll be all set."

Oh shit. They were done for now.

Holland didn't remember needing the birth certificate for Holly's visit. Then again, he didn't remember that visit at all. His wife, God rest her soul, had probably handled that. But of course, they needed to bring the most important document for Huey's visit, and it didn't seem to exist. Good job, Holland. You sure look like a responsible dad now.

Holland and Healy glanced at each other with wide eyes then turned back to the nurse. They had to give her some props. She seemed to be pretty patient with their awkwardness.

Holland chuckled. "You know, I thought I forgot something."

"So you don't have his birth certificate?" There was a hint of skepticism in the nurse's voice that Holland didn't like. But he couldn't focus on that at the moment.

He replied, "Unfortunately, no."

"I told him we needed it before we left, but he just doesn't listen," Healy said as he shrugged his shoulders.

Holland fired a glare at his friend that told him to dial it back. Luckily, the nurse didn't catch on.

"Oh, that's alright. I'm sure you know the delivery measurements on hand, right?"

The two men shook their heads. Their act was crumbling by the second.

The nurse shrugged and jotted something down in her file. "Alright then. When you go home later, you can just take a look and call us once you have them."

"I sure will." Now, Holland was the one sweating.

"Great. I'll bring the doctor in for you, then."

"Thank you," the men chorused.

They gave the nurse a friendly smile as she walked out of the exam room with Huey's file in tow. They craned their heads in the doorway to see her turn down the hall and disappear from view. Once she was gone, they pulled back in and returned to their spots.

Holland hissed, "The fucking birth certificate."

"How did you forget that?"

"It's not the first thing on my mind, Healy! She probably thinks that we kidnapped him now!"

"Alright, alright. Let's...Let's not panic. If the doctor asks, we can just tell them the truth."

"Healy, did you not hear me? They'll report us to the police and take Huey from us. I'm not risking that."

"Or they'll find a way to help us."

Holland's mouth formed into a small O. He was getting it now. "They can give us our next step."

"Exactly. But only if they ask. Let's try to keep this going as long as we can."

"Okay."

A thought then entered Holland's head, causing him to smile. What if they could get two answers for the price of one?

"Maybe they've heard something about a baby smuggling ring."

Jesus Christ. This again.

"Will you get off the baby smuggling ring? Huey didn't come from one!"

"There's a lot more that goes on in this city than you might think."

Before Healy could argue back, a new woman entered their exam room. She was older than the nurse and looked to be around their age with black hair tied up in a bun and small black glasses around her face.

"Hello," she greeted with a smile that was definitely genuine.

The men replied, "Hi!"

"I'm Dr. Norton. I'll be your pediatrician today. So I see that we have-" She looked down at the file in her hands. "-Huey with us."

"That's right. He's my boy, alright," Holland said.

He fired a wink at Healy, but his friend shook his head with a blank stare. He didn't have to try so hard to keep the act going.

"Okay. So we can get started then with the physical examination," Dr. Norton declared.

Fucking finally. It was the only thing they had come for. But drama tended to follow them wherever they went.

Dr. Norton explained, "You can hold onto Huey for the exam, Mr..."

"March."

"March, right. So we'll start with the standard checking of the heartbeat."

Dr. Norton put on her stethoscope and bent down to Huey's level, placing it over his heart. The baby started to flinch once she did, causing Holland to whisper, "It's okay. It's okay."

"No, this is good. It shows that he has a normal reaction to the cold."

Huh. Babies were more complex than Holland thought. Maybe there were reasons behind what they did all the time besides "They're just a baby. It's what they're supposed to do." Good to know.

"Alright, heartbeat seems normal," Dr. Norton said once she stood up. She took off her stethoscope and placed it on the counter, writing something down in the file.

She grabbed an ophthalmoscope and returned to Huey's side. She placed the tool near his eyes and watched as they followed the light when she moved it side to side.

While this went on, Holland said, "You know, I'm glad you're letting me hold him for this. I would have been a little nervous if you didn't."

"Oh, I understand. New parents can be protective of their babies. It's normal."

Holland chuckled. "It's been a while since someone called me a new parent."

"Oh, Huey's not your first?"

"Nope." Holland tried to flash a grin that said he knew what he was doing, but all he did was look creepy. Luckily, the doctor didn't notice it.

"Eyes are healthy," she mumbled to herself. Walking back to the counter, she said, "Well, congrats on your second. That means this visit will go a lot faster, and I won't have to explain what everything means."

"Thank God," Holland said in relief.

Meanwhile, Healy muttered at the same time, "Dammit."

Dr. Norton grabbed an otoscope and placed it in Huey's ear, taking a look inside. After a moment, she looked over at Healy, who was standing firm in the corner like the bodyguard he was.

"You're awfully quiet, sir," she said as she returned to the exam.

Healy asked, "Me?"

God. Did he really just ask that? Everyone knew that Holland was the one that never shut up between the two of them. Of course she was talking to him.

"Yeah," Dr. Norton said. "How are you related to Huey?"

"I just live with him."

Dr. Norton looked up at Healy with a raised brow. She didn't like the sound of that.

She turned to Holland, and he explained, "Business associate. He lives with us too."

"Ah, gotcha. Turn him so I can see the other ear, please."

"Oh, sure." Holland turned Huey on his side, and Dr. Norton peered inside with the otoscope.

She continued, "You didn't want to bother Mom?"

"Yeah, she's resting at home."

There. He could keep up the act too. Take that, Healy.

Dr. Norton replied, "Aw, that's sweet." She took the otoscope out, placed it down, then wrote some more in the file.

She put on a pair of white rubber gloves and declared, "Alright, time to look at the rest of him. Now he may flinch while this occurs, Mr. March, so if it's alright, I'd like to perform this with me holding instead."

"Sure, sure."

Holland handed Huey over to Dr. Norton and watched her turn to the side. His separation anxiety wasn't far behind.

Dr. Norton wasn't giving the men much to look at, as her body was blocking them from looking at the baby. They started to crane their necks over her shoulder and saw her holding out Huey's left arm and looking at it. She moved on to the right arm and found herself shifting her gaze to the wall. Damn new parents. They were always so nosy. If they would let her do her fucking job, she could tell them what was happening in a minute.

Turning her head back, she asked, "Do you mind?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry," they chorused. Healy and Holland returned to their place and looked at their feet instead.

Holland's fancy loafers and Healy's worn-out sneakers were standing on a marble tile floor. Even the fucking floor was peach-colored. Holland had never been so sick of a color in his life.

After a moment, Dr. Norton declared, "Alright, Mr. March. You can take Huey back."

Holland felt himself release an exhale that he hadn't wanted anyone to hear out loud. No one pointed it out, though. Thank God.

Holland took Huey back into his arms and smiled down at him. He was complete again.

Dr. Norton began to pick up Huey's file and take her final notes in it. While this occurred, she explained, "So I haven't found any issues with Huey so far. His arms and legs are in proportion and don't appear broken or twisted. And his belly button is healthy as well, so you don't have to worry about any issues with that. All in all, you have one healthy kid on your hands. You're doing a good job with him so far."

Both men sighed while closing their eyes with a smile. That was the only thing they'd wanted to hear. If they could get the hell out of there, their perfect morning would be complete.

"Hang on," Dr. Norton's voice suddenly said.

The men opened their eyes and stared at the doctor, her eyes glued to the file. Their calm left as quickly as it came.

The doctor said, "The nurse has Huey's delivery weight and height listed as N/A. Did you forget the birth certificate, Mr. March?"

Oh no. This was not going to be all put on him. If Holland was going down, Healy was going down with him.

He turned to his friend with panic in his eyes, gesturing his head towards Dr. Norton. Of course Holland was making him be the one to talk and blow their cover. That ass. Well, it was bound to happen, so he just had to do it.

Healy sighed. "To be honest, we're not even sure he has one."

Dr. Norton looked up from the file and gave him a confused look. Here goes nothing.

"Look, Huey's not his kid. He's not even my kid. He's just...some baby we found in our bushes two days ago. We have no idea who left him-"

"There was no note or anything with him," Holland cut in.

"Right. So we're trying to find his parents."

Holland pulled out his wallet from his pocket and revealed the badge inside.

"We're private cops."

"That doesn't matter, March."

God, that asshole. He was always trying to self-promote. Wasn't he the one that told Healy, "Let the clients come to you, not the other way around?"

"Well, she probably wants to know _why_ we're looking for his parents, though," Holland said.

"Any sensible person would try to find a lost kid's parents!"

"Unless they're a kidnapper." Shit. Bad choice of words. Holland turned to Dr. Norton and added, "Which we're not."

"Just continue the story, please."

"Right, sorry," Healy said. "So we're trying to find his parents, and, you know, you don't want to return an unhealthy kid to his parents. So that's why we're here. And you said he's healthy, so that's all that matters."

Dr. Norton shook her head once he finished. This was definitely going to be a conference room story later.

She looked back down at the file and said, "Well, that does explain these missing measurements. And I do appreciate your honesty." The doctor flashed them a warm smile that said she meant it. "I'm glad I could be some help to your case."

"Actually, there is one more thing. See, we went to every hospital in the city yesterday, and not one of them has had a missing kid. They haven't even checked out any boys within the past week. So we were wondering-"

"Do you know anything about a baby smuggling ring happening around here?" Holland asked.

Healy lifted his arm to smack him upside the head, but he soon lowered it and clenched his fist to his side. He counted to ten instead.

Dr. Norton appeared to be buying their story much less than before, especially after Holland opened his mouth. She gave him a look that said she wasn't an idiot, and shame on them for thinking she was one.

"No. There isn't," she replied in a flat tone.

Holland shrugged but kept his brows furrowed together. Of course the authority would tell him, "No." She may be a part of it, for all he knew. He'd find out the truth. Someday.

Healy sighed. "Our real question was, 'Where do you think we should look next?'"

"Well, there aren't many other options left for you guys," Dr. Norton explained as she turned around. She began tidying up the counter, putting her tools back in their proper spots, and continued with her answer.

"The most likely one I can think of is that Huey here was born at home. His mother might not have gone to a hospital to deliver him."

"So she gave birth alone?" Holland spoke up. Jesus Christ. He couldn't even imagine.

The doctor replied, "Not necessarily. The father was probably beside her as well as a relative or a friend. There could have been a midwife there as well."

Everything became clear to Healy once she finished. Holy shit. A midwife. Why hadn't he thought of that?

"Ooooooh, a midwife," he said.

Holland added, "Right, right. A midwife. Very common. Yeah, that must be it."

Healy could see right through his friend. He knew that Holland didn't know what a midwife was. He probably thought it was another word for mistress. Dumbass.

Healy leaned into Holland's side and quietly explained, "A midwife is a woman who comes to the house instead of the hospital and delivers the baby from there."

"Right. That's what I thought." This day kept having more things for Holland to learn. He was loving every second of it.

Healy turned to Dr. Norton and asked, "But aren't midwives a bit, you know...old-fashioned? Are they even still around?"

"Oh yeah. There aren't many, but they're still pretty popular. There's some in L.A. too, which is exactly what you're looking for."

Dr. Norton went over to a set of business cards displayed at the end of the counter. She took out two cards from their slots and handed them over to Healy.

"These are the two midwives that work around here. You guys are right about one thing. Huey's definitely less than a week old. If he was an at-home birth, one of these is the woman you're looking for."

Finally. Some fucking answers. They'd have Huey home in no time.

"Thank you so much," Healy said, unable to contain the joy on his face.

Holland added, "We really appreciate it."

"Hey. It's my job." Dr. Norton shrugged with a smirk then returned to the counter.

Holland asked her, "Well, you said Huey's healthy, right? So are we free to go?"

"Oh, not by a long shot. We still have to get through Part Two of the examination."

And just like that, the color drained from Healy's face. "We do?"

"Uh huh." Dr. Norton turned around and leaned against the counter, clapping her hands together. "This is where I get to ask you questions about your techniques."

Both men's smiles faded at the same time, turning into disheartened frowns. So much for a quick visit.

~

"Jesus Christ. They really dig into you with those questions, don't they?"

Healy shook his head in the backseat of Holland's convertible, holding Huey in his arms as he stared at the familiar suburbs outside. He hadn't felt that exhausted from a doctor's visit in years, and those were visits that involved him. The pediatrician didn't have to make such a big deal out of it. She was examining a newborn, not engaging in a fucking case study where she needed every last detail to piece everything together. That was his job.

Holland said from the driver's seat, "They want to make sure we're not killing him."

God forbid. Holland didn't know what he'd do if he had that on his record. No one would hire them then.

"But we're not! She said he was healthy! So why did she give us a hard time for feeding him too much? He cries because he's hungry, so we feed him. We're just doing our jobs."

And Holland thought he was the overprotective parent in the house. It looked like that was about to change.

"So is she, Healy. Don't freak out about this. She's only trying to help us."

"Well, she did help in one way. We got some new leads on finding Huey's parents."

"Do you still have those cards?"

"Yup." Healy dug into his jacket pocket and pulled out the two white business cards of the midwives.

"Great."

The brown convertible soon reached their home in the middle of the curved street and pulled into the driveway. The two men stepped out and made their way over to the front door.

While they walked, Healy asked, "So how are we doing this? I was thinking we'd call one of these midwives and see if she'd be willing to talk to us. We still have the whole day ahead of us."

Holland checked his watch to be sure. Holy crap, it was only noon? Their appointment had seemed like it should have been pitch black outside once they left. Time must not exist in a doctor's office after all.

Holland noticed Healy staring at him while he fumbled with the keys. Shit, that's right. He asked him something.

"Uh, yeah. Yeah, that should be good."

As they stepped inside, Healy rifled through his pocket for the cards again. He set them down on the kitchen bar for Holland to see and asked, "Do you mind calling one while I put Huey down?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Thanks."

Healy looked down at the sleeping baby in his arms and smiled as he walked towards Holly's room. Was this a normal impulse for new parents? Did they always smile without control at their kid? Healy liked it. A lot. He never wanted it to end, actually.

"Okay, Huey," he whispered. "Do you want to lay down for a few minutes? Huh? Yeah, I bet you do."

Healy only took one step into the room when there was a knock at the front door. The two men turned to face each other with wide eyes. They should have been used to this by now. Most of their cases always started this way. But it surprised them every time. However, who was behind the door was always the real surprise.

Holland trudged over to the front door with Healy in tow. The former leaned back his head and groaned, "A client is the last thing we need right now."

Holland opened the door and was surprised to find that it wasn't a shaky old lady on their doorstep. Instead, it was a tall man with a square head and polished black hair. He appeared to be pretty buff underneath the black suit he wore, making his physique a bit daunting to the two. He looked like someone a person could trust but still leave a sliver of doubt in them on his real motives. That was never a good impression.

"Good morning," the man greeted with a warm smile. "Would one of you happen to be Holland March?"

Holland felt tense the longer he stood there. One look at this man, and he wanted nothing to do with him. But it only seemed to get worse. The man knew his name.

Holland replied, "Yes, that would be me. Can I help you, sir?"

"Well, I think you can. My name is Eddie Spokane." The man glanced down at Huey in Healy's arms, and his smile turned into a wide grin. "And I think you have my boy."


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Explicate, /ek-spli-keyt/, verb: to make plain or clear; explain; interpret

Healy and Holland should have been relieved to see Eddie. They'd been searching for Huey's parents for two days, and here was his father in the flesh. It was great news. The case was closed, Huey could go home, and everything could return to normal. Why couldn't they heave a gigantic sigh of relief?

Sure, there was a small part of them that was happy about it, but they could barely feel it. Something wasn't right here. Something was off. And it had to do with Eddie.

Healy and Holland brought their guest inside and sat him on the couch, where Healy sat across from him. He still held Huey in his arms, and he could see Eddie eyeing his son from across the way. Holland soon joined them with two bottles of beer in his hand.

"You have no idea how wonderful it is to finally meet you, Mr. Spokane." He held one of the bottles in front of his guest and asked, "Care for a drink?"

"Oh, no thank you." Eddie waved the drink aside. "I'm trying to cut back, especially this early."

Holland shrugged at his reply and sat beside Healy. He opened one bottle for himself and placed the other one in front of him. That one would be his 5 o'clock drink.

Holland looked at Eddie and said, "I mean, we've been looking everywhere for you."

He saw his guest's eyes widen and realized how creepy that sounded. Shit, Holland. As if he needed a reason not to trust you.

"Not, not you specifically. I didn't mean to say that."

"He meant to say that we've been looking everywhere for this little guy's parents," Healy spoke up.

Good old Healy. He always covered up Holland's habit of being impolite. He was a good friend.

Eddie shrugged. "Well, I guess I could say the same thing in that I've been looking everywhere for my son. If it wasn't for this poster I found in town about a lost baby, I might still be out there. I have to thank you two for doing that. I wouldn't have even thought of advertising about it if I was in your shoes."

The posters. Holland had forgotten all about those. It must have been a good idea after all.

Holland couldn't help but smile at the comment and turned his head aside to hide it. "Ah, we just wanted to do the right thing."

"Well, I'm glad you did. We need more good people like you two around here."

Now, Healy joined in on the smiling and made a bashful chuckle. Eddie had aimed for their egos and hit the bullseye.

Once they pulled themselves together, Healy asked, "Well, if you don't mind us asking, how did Hu-"

He couldn't finish the question. Huey wasn't his name anymore. It never was. Healy would just have to wait and see what his father said it was.

He cleared his throat. "How did your son end up over here?"

"I mean, he was in our bushes," Holland chimed in. "The ones in front of the house. He was laying underneath them."

"We almost didn't see him there." Healy swallowed the sigh that had been rising up in his throat. He was hoping that the bushes part of the story wouldn't be revealed. It was too late now.

Eddie turned to the side and growled to himself, "The bushes!"

Holland felt a shiver down his spine at the shout, but he tried to ignore it.

Eddie shook his head and turned back to his hosts, a tired smile appearing on his face. He chuckled. "I never would have guessed to check the bushes. He was hiding right under our noses."

"Heh, yeah." Holland couldn't stop his nerves from coming out when he spoke. God dammit. What was the matter with him? Why was he so riled up? Calm the fuck down.

Well, they would need a record of the case. Maybe he could take notes to distract himself. That would do the trick. Holland then pulled out his notepad from his pocket and opened it up to write down everything Eddie said.

"Well, what happened to us is a little weird, so bear with me. I had been with my girl for about two years. I'm not married, though. She's just my girl."

Sure enough, Eddie held up his left hand to show that there was no ring on it.

"Well, she told me she was pregnant, and I was thrilled. I thought that we could be a real family now. We'd have the whole package. She was happy about the baby too but not like I was. But you know, you take what you can get. Anyway, so my girl started yelling to me about how she was going into labor, and this was...last Friday, I believe. The days have just been blurring together since it happened."

Holland replied with a quiet, "Mmmm." He knew what that felt like. It was more often than he liked to admit.

Eddie continued, "So I brought her to the hospital, and I waited for what seemed like forever until my son was finally born. I don't know if you two have kids, but seeing your kid for the first time...It lifts your heart."

Holland was beginning to feel warm and fuzzy inside. He knew what that felt like too.

Eddie's face began to fall as if he were reliving everything in his mind. "We were happy about him for a while until...later that night. See, the nurses told us that they brought our baby into the nursery with all of the others so we could get some rest. But a few hours later, an alarm went off in the hospital. Something was wrong. It was a 'Code Pink,' they said. Missing infant."

Eddie tried to hide the tears in his eyes, but they were already too misty to hold them back.

"I could see it in the nurse's eyes when she came in," his voice cracked. "It was our boy. Just like that, he was gone."

There was a pause in the story while Eddie tried to compose himself. Healy and Holland didn't make a move when he did. They knew they had to give him his space.

Eddie soon cleared his throat and continued, "Well, they discharged my girl the next morning, and we went home. They told us to try to calm down and that they would take care of the situation. But we had to find him.

“So we went searching ourselves. We went around town, asking the police and other people if they'd seen anything suspicious. I even sent out some of my men to go looking for him. I work in waste management, you see, so I just had the garbage trucks travel down every street. No one could help us, though. So we were just left at home, wondering what to do.

“That is, until I saw your poster a few hours ago. I recognized my baby's face instantly. It was too perfect. Here I was, a man searching for his newborn son, and I find an ad saying that there's a found baby. I knew it was my boy. So here I am."

"Well, we're very glad that you found the poster, Mr. Spokane. We were almost starting to lose hope," Healy said.

There was one detail in the story that was bothering Holland. "Hang on. Your girlfriend had the baby at a hospital? Like, a real hospital here in L.A.?"

Eddie couldn't help but scoff at the question. Was he speaking another language? He had said a hospital, hadn't he?

"Well, where else would he have been born? An alleyway?"

"And the kidnapping occurred while you were still there?"

"Yes."

"I knew it!" Holland pounded his fist on the arm of the couch, his face scrunching up into a scowl as he stared at Eddie.

Healy turned to the side and rolled his eyes. It never ended.

With a sigh, he turned back to his guest and explained, "What my associate means is that we went to every hospital in the city, and no one had a report of a missing or stolen infant."

Eddie raised an eyebrow at the comment and leaned back in his chair. "Really? Now that's something."

Holland shook his head and broke out of his baby smuggling ring thoughts. That was a case he could solve another day. Huey's family was what mattered now.

"Well, I'm sure your girlfriend will be thrilled when she learns you found him," he said.

Eddie's face fell again as he began wringing his hands in his lap. "Actually, she's...no longer with us."

Holland began to feel a lump in his throat. He was starting to regret ever opening his mouth.

Eddie explained, "See, on Saturday night, my girl was getting tired of waiting. She hated how we were going through every inch of the city to find nothing. She was starting to think our son was dead. So she told me that she was going out again to look for him. I tried to hold her back and told her that I would come with her. I couldn't let her do this alone. But that's the thing with my girl."

Eddie cast his eyes to the floor and shook his head with a glare. A bitter tone had now entered his voice. "She never listened to me."

Eddie paused for a moment then sat up, clearing his throat. "So my girl left the house, and I waited. An hour passes, then two, and there's no word. I couldn't sleep that night. I never heard her come back. It wasn't until the next morning that I heard the news." He paused again, letting out a large sigh. "My girl was dead. She was lying in the middle of the street with a bullet in her chest."

Eddie pointed towards the right and added, "It was just up the block here too. Right at the intersection before you turn on this street. I remembered it clear as day when I drove past it."

Healy and Holland's hearts sank. They had seen a dead body on that street Sunday morning. They drove past it without batting an eye. It hadn't been their problem. But karma was a bitch.

The only thing the two men could say was a quiet, "Oh."

Healy shook his head and added, "I-I'm so sorry, Mr. Spokane."

"It's alright. I was so scared that I had lost my son  _and_ my girl. But I'm sure she's happy up there now that she knows we're not alone anymore. And I'll keep looking for the bastard that took him from us. I know he's the one that killed her too. I'll make sure justice comes for him."

Eddie had taken on an authority to his voice. He made it sound like he was the only one that gave orders in town, and there would be consequences if someone didn't follow through on them. It made Healy and Holland tremble in their seats.

The former recovered first and asked, "I don't mean to keep pushing the subject, Mr. Spokane, but what was your girlfriend's name? Just so we know for our records."

Eddie's smile returned, and he let out a small, wistful sigh. "My girl had quite a name. She was my Little Star. That's what it was. Star E. Night."

Holland couldn't hide the disbelief on his face as he wrote it down. Star E. Night, huh? It sounded like a porno name. Maybe he knew her from a film. Christ, Holland, the woman was dead. Show some respect.

Eddie chuckled to himself. "Of course, that wasn't her real name. I hated her real name." He scrunched up his face as he spat, "Jenny Carraday. Once she was pregnant, she was trying to get me to call her that. I never did, though. No, she was Star. She'll always be Star to me."

Jenny Carraday triggered something within Healy and Holland. It was a name they had heard on a recent case. A case they had been hired to solve on Sunday morning.

"I'm sorry," Holland spoke up. "Did you say Jenny...Carraday?"

"That's right. But don't write that down. I want her remembered as Star."

Holland nodded at Eddie then looked down at the notepad. He crossed out "Star E. Night," wrote, "JENNY CARRADAY" underneath it, and underlined it three times.

Eddie then cleared his throat and said, "Well, it's been fun reliving my weekend from Hell, but if you don't mind, I think I'll be taking my son back now."

"Actually, we're going to hold onto him for a little while," Healy said as he pulled Huey to his chest. He made sure to look Eddie in the eye. He wanted him to know he was serious.

Eddie did know it, and he didn't like it. He arched his back and gave the man holding his son a hard stare. Holland could feel the tension, and he knew he had to jump in.

"What my partner means, Mr. Spokane, is that, uh, we want to wait and see if anyone else shows up claiming to be his parents. He wants to be able to disprove them and say that you're his father. Which I have no doubt in my mind that you are. But we just...want to wait."

Eddie wasn't buying it. They knew that he wasn't. But it had to be done.

Eddie tapped his fingers against his leg and melt his gaze on Huey. It wasn’t long before he stood up and sighed. "Fair enough. I understand your reasons. If you get any word, you just give me a call."

He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a business card, handing it to Holland. Eddie walked over to the front door and called, "You take care of my boy now."

He turned the knob and stood in the doorway, firing one last glare at Healy and Holland. "I'll be seeing him soon."

Without another word, Eddie Spokane shut the door behind him and left the premises.

Holland only had one thing to say when they were alone. "He's a crime boss."

"Oh, 100%."

Holland let out a loud sigh as he and Healy stood up and walked towards the kitchen. "We can't give Huey back to him. Even if he's not his real father, he's not touching him."

"No way."

Holland rested his arm on the kitchen bar and propped his chin in his hand. He mused, "How the fuck could Huey come from someone like that? 'Waste management,' my ass. He goes around killing anyone that upsets him for a living. We can't let Huey grow up with someone like that. He's not going to turn out like that."

"He probably killed Jenny." Healy had said it so quietly that it was barely audible. His eyes were settled on the floor, making him go into a daze.

His words chilled Holland to the bone, making him go into a daze as well. Neither of them wanted to address the elephant in the room. But someone had to say it.

It turned out to be Healy. "I can't believe we forgot about Jenny."

"Yeah, well, I guess we found her now. And we found Huey's mom too. They're the same fucking person." Holland picked himself up and banged his fist against the column that made up the kitchen doorway. "We found her, and we just...left her there."

He bit his lip and held back tears as he kept his fist in place. He hated feeling like he failed on a case, especially when it was true. If they had just been to the crime scene sooner or at least went over to it and asked the cops what was going on. If they had done their fucking job. They didn't deserve to call themselves detectives.

When the silence grew to be too much for him, Healy sighed. "So what do we do now?"

"The only thing we can do." Holland stood up straight and looked at his friend with pain in his eyes. "We have to close the case."


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Verity, /ver-i-tee/, noun: the state or quality of being true; accordance with fact or reality

Healy knocked on the cranberry-colored door with the brass numbers 213 nailed to the front of it. Holland stood beside him, now being the one in charge of holding Huey, and took a deep breath as he rocked on his feet.

The two were inside an apartment complex on Hollywood Boulevard, the midday sun streaming in through the dirty window at the end of the hall. It wasn't the nicest complex they'd ever been in, but it wasn't a shitshow either. The walls had faded yellow wallpaper lined at each corner, and a dark red rug flooring was under their feet. The place was in desperate need of renovation, but it wasn't about to be closed down by a health inspector any time soon. It was one of the nicer parts of the city they'd been to.

After what seemed like ages, the door opened to reveal a young woman with blonde hair in a messy bun. She had a pink waitress dress on that told them she worked at a diner. Whether she had just gotten off a shift or was about to leave for one, they didn't know. But they did know one thing: Her name tag said Olivia.

"Oh, thank God," she greeted with a sigh. The cherry red lipstick on her face began to curl into a grin that reached both cheeks. "I was hoping I'd hear from you soon. Do you have any news?"

"We do," Holland started, "But we need your help in confirming it."

Olivia's brows began to furrow together, and her smile grew smaller. She didn't know what the fuck they were talking about. Confirm? What the hell was there to confirm? Did they find her or not?

"Wh...What do you mean?" she asked through a chuckle. Her eyes fell on Huey, and her smile grew a few inches wider. "Awww. Who's this little guy?"

Here it was. They had to tell her. Their success rate was about to go down even further than it usually did.

Holland bit his lip and closed his eyes. _Lord,_ _give_ _me_ _strength_. He let out the deep breath he was holding in. "This is Jenny's son."

Olivia looked at her guests, and everything seemed to freeze in her eyes. Any hint that a smile had been on her face was gone for good.

~

"I-I don't understand," Olivia said as she sat across from Healy and Holland in her living room.

While the complex had some shred of decency to it, her actual apartment looked like shit. Clothes were strewn in every inch of the space, and it desperately needed a dusting. Holland couldn't be one to judge, though. His house used to look just like that. Then, Healy came along and decided to clean it top to bottom.

God bless Healy. Holland didn't know what he'd do without him. But there was a time and place for gushing about his best friend. This wasn't one of them.

Olivia's hands were clasped around her knee, her eyes looking anywhere but up. She asked, "How could you have Jenny's son but not Jenny herself? I mean, you're looking for _her_ , right? So where is she? What did you find out? Please, tell me. I can handle it, really."

The waver in her tone told them otherwise. They needed to handle this with care. The real Holland had to shut up for once. No snarky comments or witty one-liners here. He had to be a professional.

Besides, it wasn't that he didn't like Olivia. She was a nice girl with her heart in the right place. She wasn't a finicky old lady who gave them a hard time and cried every two minutes. She was just scared about her best friend. Alright, the $400 she gave them was great, but she was more than a donor to The March Family Needs Money Foundation this time. She was someone they had—and wanted—to help.

Holland started, "Miss Macintosh..." He couldn't do it. God dammit, he couldn't do it. Maybe it was his own wounded pride and failure that stopped him, but no other word left his mouth.

Olivia picked her head up to look them in the eye. "Tell me!" she said louder than before.

The waver was stronger now. She knew the truth. But she needed to hear it for herself.

The job fell onto Healy. Wringing his hands together, he cleared his throat. "Miss Macintosh...Jenny's dead."

Olivia held back her tears. She couldn't cry in front of them. She was always taught to cry when no one was around. She was a strong woman. That's what everyone had to see. That's what they wanted.

Olivia scrunched up her face and pulled her lips in, hiding them from view. That didn't stop her eyes from becoming glossy with tears. She didn't let them fall, though. They stayed there while she listened to her best friend's fate.

"She was found dead in the suburbs Sunday morning. She was...lying in the street...and was believed to be shot."

Healy didn't want to say it as much as Holland did. He was feeling pretty shitty about himself too. But he couldn't let it stop him. Olivia had to know.

Hearing that Jenny was shot was what did her in. "No no no no NOOOOOO!" she yelled as she broke down in tears.

Her crying was one of the loudest they'd ever heard. Odd enough, it didn't bother them like other clients' crying did. Maybe it was the fact that she was so young. Maybe it was that her tears sounded so real. It was most likely that this loss was a personal loss for them too. They'd been looking for Huey's parents, and what did he have? A dead mother and a criminal father. Who could they give him to now?

Huey didn't even seem phased by her crying. He continued sleeping as if he didn't have a care in the world. Well, he really _didn't_ have a care in the world. That was the perks of being a newborn.

The two men let Olivia cry for a moment until Holland reached over and gave her hand a squeeze. "I'm so sorry," he whispered, holding back tears of his own.

It was a phrase he'd heard too often when his wife died. He started to hate it the more someone said it to him. But it was his turn now. He needed to say it. It was the only way he'd be free from his guilt.

Once Holland let go, Olivia began to calm down. She sat up straight and wiped at her face, still choking in between her tears.

"I bet he did it to her," she eventually said. "That bastard. He's the one that killed her. That motherfucking...I told her-"

"Who, Miss Macintosh?" Healy asked. "Who killed her?"

"Fucking Eddie. That no-good son of a bitch!"

Shit. So she knew about Eddie. Eddie wasn't even a name she had told them when she hired them. Well, she hadn't told them much when she hired them. Big mistake. She was going to have to tell them everything now.

"Eddie Spokane?" Holland asked. He wanted to punch himself for it. Of course it was Eddie Spokane. Who else could it fucking be?

Olivia was starting to sound more like herself again. "Yeah. That's him. Wait, how do you know him?"

"He came by this morning. He tried to take Hu...Jenny's son back from us. He also gave us a story of what happened, but it was a load of bullshit if you ask me."

God dammit. He said no snarky comments. Why did he have no self-control?

Olivia chuckled. "Yeah, that sounds like Eddie."

"We're doing our best to protect Jenny's son from him, Miss Macintosh," Healy explained. "But we have a feeling that you didn't tell us everything we needed to know on Sunday. And we know he's going to come back. So we need you to tell us what happened between them so we can have an understanding on how to handle him when we see him again."

Olivia had finally stopped crying. She gave a small nod but didn't look them in the eye. "Okay. Okay, I'll talk. I'll tell you everything this time."

Olivia arched her back and took a deep breath. Here goes nothing.

"Jenny and I were prostitutes together. We fucked under the same roof." Olivia let out a bitter scoff as she shook her head. She never thought she'd have to say those words again.

"That's how we met, really. We became friends after our first few nights, and we bought this place for ourselves. Anyway, I got out of that gig a long time ago. I never wanted to be that. But Jenny liked it. She said it made her feel good; She loved the rush it gave her each night. So she kept doing it.

“About two years ago, Jenny tells me about this one guy she screwed that was...different than the others. She wasn't playing a part with him. She was...comfortable doing it with him. So they kept it up. He would come back once a week, and they'd do it all over again. Then, once a week became twice a week. And then, Jenny comes home one night telling me that he's her boyfriend now. Everyone else she was screwing didn't matter anymore. He was the one she wanted to love for the rest of her life." Olivia's scoff came back. "I bet you can tell who this is."

"Eddie," Healy mumbled.

Olivia nodded. "I met him a couple of times. There were days when Jenny brought him back here so he could see her off the clock. Every time I met him, nothing sat right with me. He just gave off this...weird vibe, like he didn't really know how to act normal. He had this kind of 'I want you to know that I'm the only boss around here' appearance, you know?"

"Yeah, we, uh, we noticed that too," Holland said. Eddie's face popped back into his head, causing him to shudder. God, he was creepy.

Olivia continued, "I never really liked him because of that. But Jenny worshipped the ground he walked on, so I couldn't tell her that."

There was a pause for a moment while she tried to get the words out. It was hurting her to relive the story. Healy and Holland could see it in her eyes. But she had to do it. She'd been keeping it to herself for too long. It was time to let it out.

"I come home from work one day, and Jenny's standing here in the living room. She has this...huge smile on her face. It was different than the one she gave me when she told me about Eddie. It was real."

Olivia glanced over at Huey and found a chuckle coming out of her mouth. "She tells me she's pregnant. God, she was so fucking happy."

Shit. She wasn't supposed to cry again. That shit was over with. It didn't need to happen again.

While she wiped at her eyes, Olivia continued, "Everything changed for Jenny after that. Everything seemed to...make sense for her, I guess. She didn't want to be living the way she was. She wanted to be a good mother to her baby and give them the life they deserved. She quit her job and devoted everything to getting ready for this kid.

“It was around this time that I did some digging. I hired a P.I. to look into Eddie, and he found out everything. Eddie was a mob boss. He was the ward of some crime family when he was a kid until everyone got killed off. So the business fell onto him. And he was damn proud of it. The job was everything to him. And he didn't show any mercy to anyone who crossed him. You fuck up once, you're done. That's why he only has two men with him. All the others disappointed him."

And he had the nerve to think he was capable of being Huey's father. That son of a bitch.

"I sat Jenny down one day and told her all of this. It was hard for her to take in. Eddie hadn't told her any of this. She knew it was true, though. And after she told him about the baby, his true colors started to show. He became... _really_ possessive over her. He wanted this baby. He was ready for it. But we both knew he only wanted it so he could take on his job once he was older. That's all they care about, really: Passing down the legacy.

“So Jenny confronted him one day. She said she knew everything, and she wouldn't have it. Their baby would have a normal life whether he liked it or not. Well, he certainly didn't take that well. And everything just fell apart from there. The fantasy was gone. Jenny didn't love him anymore. She saw him for the piece of shit that he was. She wasn't afraid to tell him that."

There was another pause as Olivia took a deep breath. She sat up straight and tilted her head back. She needed as much strength as possible to finish the story.

"And then comes the part that I told you guys about already. Last Thursday, Jenny tells me she's leaving for the day. She's going job searching so she'll have something ready for her after the baby's born. I didn't really think anything of it. It made sense to me. So I said goodbye, and I...watched her shut the door behind her."

Olivia choked on her words and felt her voice struggle to get out the end. "And that was the last time I'll ever see her."

Olivia began to cry again, leading Holland to grab her hand once more. She needed a friend right now. It was the least he could do to help.

Healy started, "Miss Macintosh-"

"Olivia, please."

"Olivia. Why didn't you tell us that Jenny was pregnant? Why didn't you tell us about any of this?"

"I guess I was just...scared of what happened if you did know. When Jenny went missing, I called the first P.I. before you guys, but his number was disconnected. And I just know that Eddie had something to do with it. So I'm just scared that...that he's going to come for me too." Olivia could barely get it out as a whisper. She looked at her guests and made her eyes as wide as a doe's.

"He's not." Holland squeezed her hand tighter, never taking his eyes off of her. "We're going to make sure of that."

Olivia tried to look down at Huey, but she couldn't see much of him from her angle. All he was to her was a blue blanket with a tiny nose poking out from it. She didn't want him to be just that. This was Jenny's son, for Christ's sake. This was the kid they'd been waiting for. She needed to see him.

Olivia let go of Holland's hand and wiped at her eyes. "Could I...Could I hold him for a minute?"

"Of course."

Holland handed Huey over to her, and she took him into her arms. A small gasp came out of her mouth as she looked down at the sleeping baby. She felt the tears return to her eyes, but god dammit, she couldn't do it again. She'd cried too much already in the last ten minutes.

Olivia took a deep breath and whispered, "Hi. Hi there. Oh, you look just like your mom. I'm sure she's up there right now loving you too."

This was the reunion Healy and Holland had been waiting for. Sure, it wasn't technically with Huey's real mom, but it was enough to bring a smile to their faces at a job almost well done. They'd found Huey's home and had their pay. It was another case for the books.

Holland was ready to jump and leave, but Healy brought their success to a halt. "So is it alright if we leave him with you, then?" he asked. "We haven't been able to find any of his relatives, and you're our best bet."

Olivia turned to look at him, and her smile fell. Just like that, all of their hopes were gone. Holland forced himself not to roll his eyes at his friend. He did it on the inside instead. Way to go, Healy.

Olivia explained, "I want to. I want to so badly. But I can't. I want this baby safe just as much as you guys do, which is why he can't stay here. I just know Eddie's going to come here next. He knows I have something to do with all of this. If he comes here, I don't want him to get the baby and win."

She handed Huey back to Holland and grabbed the man by his wrist. Shit, the girl had a grip. He didn't think she was doing it on purpose, but his wrist was going to be red once they left.

Olivia looked Holland in the eye and begged, "Please protect him. Please. He's all that's left of Jenny."

Like she had to ask. Holland nodded at her and replied, "We will."

"We promise," Healy added.

Olivia let go of Holland and sighed. Yup. His wrist was starting to tingle. The mark of her hand was branded onto him now.

Holland said, "Well, I think everything's settled, then. I guess we'll be on our way."

As the two men stood up, Olivia said, "Thank you. Not just for taking care of him. For helping me in the first place. I'm sorry I had to drag you into all of this."

Holland shrugged with a chuckle. "Trust me. We've been through worse. And besides, it's our job."

Shit. That wasn't how he'd wanted that to come out. Damn his wit. But the warm smile on his face told Olivia what he meant to say. She was more than a client to them now. She was a friend.

Without another word, the two men left the apartment and shut the door behind them. They stood there for a moment and let out a large sigh in unison.

As they turned down the hall, Healy asked, "So what do we do now?"

"Well-" Although he was holding Huey, Holland managed to glance down at his watch and saw it was 2:30. "We have to pick up Holly from school in a minute, so maybe we can call it quits for today."

Holland was making damn sure they remembered to pick up Holly until she had her license. He couldn't suffer through another of her famous grudges. Not again.

Healy shrugged to himself at the request. He couldn't argue with that. "Fine by me. So what do we do tomorrow, then?"

"Well, we have two options: We call the midwives and figure out what happened to Jenny and Huey in between Thursday and Sunday, or we find a way to get Eddie's ass in jail. Which do you want to do first?"


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Perquisition, /pur-kwi-zi-shun/, noun: a thorough search

Holland leaned against the doorframe of the kitchen the next morning, twirling the telephone cord around his finger. He was on the phone with one of the midwives, who seemed to be way too chipper at seven in the morning.

"And you said that address was in Pasadena?" Holland asked as he turned around to write it down on his notepad. Once he lifted his pen off the paper, he said, "Alright, I got it. So we'll see you in about an hour or so. Is that alright?...Great...Yes, you have a great morning too."

Holland heard his voice go up an octave as he said this. It was almost like he meant what he said. God, where did that come from? Did her perkiness travel through the phone somehow? Not that he was complaining about it. He didn't mind having a little positivity once in a while. It just felt weird to have it right at the crack of dawn.

Once he hung up the phone, Holland went over to the table, where Healy and Holly were finishing up their breakfast. Well, Holly was. Healy had finished a while ago. He ate like a horse.

Instead, he had taken charge in feeding Huey and had him curled up in his arms with his bottle. It wasn't a bad gig to have. Healy had gotten used to it, and it was cute to see the little guy's big brown eyes looking only at him. It made him feel warm and fuzzy inside. So this is what fatherhood felt like. 

Holland sat next to Healy and declared, "Alright, my friend, we have a date with one Louisa Grimsby as soon as we're done here."

Healy was only able to be a passive listener, as he was too focused on Huey below him. All he could say was a mumbled, "Great."

"I figure we find out if she delivered Huey...Right? Delivered? Is that the right word?"

"Yeah, yeah. You got it."

The comment was aimed at Huey, but Holland claimed it for himself. He tended to do that.

"Cool. So we find out if she delivered Huey, ask some follow-up questions if so, then see where that takes us."

"Yeah, sure."

"I don't see what the point is in all of this is," Holly spoke up with a mouthful of French toast. "Why are you going through all this trouble in finding out where he was born? Aren't you supposed to be finding the baby a home?"

There was no way in hell that she was going to call the baby by his stupid name. She didn't know what her dad was thinking when he picked it. At least her name had merit. She was named after Holland. On second thought, maybe that wasn't so great.

Holland explained, "Yes, but there's a weird gap in Olivia's story where we don't know what happened during it. So we want to put the pieces together before we do anything else. You know, we're being detectives."

Holland beamed at his daughter with the statement. He'd always wanted to say that.

Holly wasn't convinced, though. "Uh huh. How does that help him find a home?"

"It, uh, lets us figure out what happened to his old home so we'll know how to find his new one." Yeah, that sounded right.

"So you'll know what you can tell the police when you actually call them for once?"

"Exactly." God bless Holly. It was like the plan wrote itself.

"So when are you going to do that? Because I would think calling the police would be Priority #1 in this situation."

Holly didn't know why they didn't do that in the freaking first place. Weren't they supposed to be _good_ at their job? She decided not to answer that.

Holland replied, "We will. Once we have a good idea on Eddie's location, we'll make sure they bring his ass straight to jail. But first, we find out what happened to Jenny."

Holly rolled her eyes and picked at her plate. She didn't want to question her dad's methods anymore. She just wanted that damn baby out of their house. He'd taken three nights of sleep away from her, and she was in no mood for a fourth.

Holland turned to the side and saw Huey taking every sip of his bottle in Healy's arms. "Hey. Look at you," he said with a smile, giving Healy a light, backhanded tap on his arm. "You're a natural at this."

"Yeah, I guess so." Healy let out a small chuckle and smiled as well. He was loving every moment of this.

Holland reached over and placed his finger on Huey's cheek, giving it a tickle. "And you're being such a good boy for Mr. Healy. Yes, you are. Yes, you are," he said in a cutesy voice that was enough to make Holly lose her appetite.

She was hoping Healy would join her side, but he was with Holland on this one. He kept his eyes on Huey and puckered his lips, making clicking sounds with his tongue at him.

Holly watched the two men play with the baby with a sneer on her face. She soon turned her head to the side and made a quiet gagging sound to herself. When enough was enough, she stood up and made her way out of the kitchen.

"I have a bus to catch," she grumbled as she grabbed her backpack by the front door.

This was enough for Healy and Holland to break out of their trance and call, "Bye, Holly!"

"We'll see you this afternoon!" the latter added.

Holly replied, "You better."

Slinging her backpack over her shoulder, she stepped out of her stifling house and slammed the door behind her.

~

Healy and Holland didn't know what they expected when they arrived at the midwife's house. Louisa Grimsby lived in a small house tucked among the houses in Pasadena where every other elderly client they had lived. The front lawn was littered with bushes that almost reached the windows with pink flowers sticking out of them.

Holland stepped out of the car with Huey in his arms and made his way to the front door.

"It feels like any other day here," Healy said to himself.

Holland replied, "Hopefully, this will be quick and we get what we need."

Healy pushed on the doorbell and heard it ring from inside. It wasn't long before the door opened to reveal a woman in her sixties with graying hair and the type of face that wanted to invite every visitor she had inside to have a cookie she just baked. She had on a simple blue dress with a tiny white apron over the bodice and a small necklace that resembled a gold cross.

"Can I help you, gentlemen?" she greeted in a warm voice.

Holland asked, "Ms. Grimsby?"

"Yes."

"Hi, I'm Holland March. I called you not too long ago about speaking with you."

"Oh, yes! You're that nice man who called me earlier. It's lovely to meet you. Come in, come in."

So it didn't just travel through the phone. She really had the power to make a person feel pretty damn special in her presence.

While Louisa walked inside, Healy and Holland exchanged a slanted smile, shrugged, then followed her inside. They entered a small living room beside the door that was covered with pink wallpaper, glass cabinets filled with fine china, and furniture from the 50s. Yup. It really was any other house they visited on a normal day. It was good to know for the future if anyone asked them. "Midwives: They're just like everyone else."

Louisa gestured to the furniture and said, "Have a seat."

Healy and Holland sat down on a couch by the window while their host sat in an armchair across from them. A thought then crossed Holland's mind, causing him to make a small gasp.

"Oh! I forgot to mention this earlier." He chuckled to himself. "Where are my manners?"

Holy crap, he wasn't even trying to pretend to be polite for her. He was doing it on his own. What kind of powers did this woman have over him?

Turning to Healy, Holland explained, "This is my partner, Jackson Healy. I hope you don't mind that I brought him along."

Brought him along? What was he, Holland's pet? Christ.

Louisa replied, "Oh, not at all. It's lovely to meet you." She reached out her hand, and Healy shook it with a smile.

Once they let go, Louisa took up a white teacup before her and brought it to her chest. "Now you said you wanted to ask me some questions, Mr. March?"

"Yes, that's right. See, we're working on a case right now, and we're hoping that you can help us figure out a part of the story that seems to be missing."

Holland inched himself closer to Louisa and showed her Huey. "Do you remember if you delivered this baby sometime last week?"

Louisa leaned over and looked at the sleeping baby before her. She cupped her hand against his cheek and made a low hum to herself, studying the baby. She soon pulled back and said, "I can't know for sure, Mr. March. Newborns tend to look the same. It takes some time for them to grow into their features."

Holland cast his head down to the floor. He was afraid of that.

Healy spoke up, "But you did have some deliveries last week?"

"Yes, I had about two or three."

"Were any of them...unconventional? Did they seem strange to you?"

"Was a woman named Jenny Carraday involved?" Holland added.

Louisa thought for a moment, the name igniting something within. "Yes...Yes, I believe there was. Let's see...It was last Thursday, I believe. It was late in the morning, and I hadn't been up for very long when the telephone rang. I answered it, and there was a young woman on the other line. She said she had been given my card from her doctor and needed my help. She was in labor, you see."

"Naturally," Holland mumbled, invested in the story.

"And she told me her name, but I thought it was so odd that she didn't give a normal address."

"Where was she?" Healy asked.

Louisa thought for a moment, tilting her head from side to side. "Oh, I'm not sure I remember. If only I had something that could jog up my memory." The woman looked away from her guests and held out her hand to them.

Healy and Holland looked between her, her hand, then back at her. Swindled by an old midwife. That was a new one.

Holland wasn't taking it. He wrinkled his brows together and said, "You're kidding."

"Midwives are a dying career, Mr. March."

Unbelievable. They could take this shit from greasy store clerks, but Holland wouldn't make Healy punch an old lady to get her to talk. He wouldn't make anyone do that.

Holland turned to his friend and said, "Well, go on. Pay the nice woman."

Healy shook his head at him. "Why me?"

Holland held out Huey with a blank stare. Sure, he had cash on him, but he was milking the "no free hands" excuse for as long as he could.

Healy rolled his eyes with a sigh and pulled out his wallet. He handed over a twenty to Louisa, who clenched it tight in her hand. That made her sing for them.

"She told me she was at the Blue Moon Motel. It's about an hour drive north from here, just outside of Los Angeles. You can't miss it. It's in the middle of nowhere."

Healy wrote down the name of the motel and the directions to it. When he finished, he asked, "And you delivered a baby there?"

"I did. She had a very long labor. Her baby was born the next afternoon. He was a little boy like the one you have there."

"Was his mother's name Jenny Carraday?"

Louisa tilted her head from side to side again, casting her eyes at the ceiling. Healy glared at her and fished through his wallet again. He was only giving her a ten, though. She wasn't getting all of the good stuff.

Once she took it, Louisa said, "Yes, that was her name."

Holland lowered his head and let out a sigh. At least they were getting somewhere.

"Thank you very much, Ms. Grimsby."

"Oh, thank you, gentlemen. It's been so long since I had visitors here."

Holland tried to make a polite smile as he stood up. It had probably been a while since she peddled her visitors for cash too. Greedy bitch.

Holland was the first one out the door with Healy close behind him. "It was nice to meet you," the latter called as he shut the door. Making his way to the car, he asked, "So we go to this motel and see if there's any clues there, right?"

"I'd say that's our only option at this point." Holland began to climb into Healy's car and slumped into the backseat. Staring straight ahead, he sighed. "Midwives suck."

~

Louisa was right. The Blue Moon Motel really was in the middle of nowhere. It looked like any other motel a person would find on a long drive when they were desperate for a place to stay.

The building stretched down the right of the desert and was low to the ground. It looked dingy as hell, and there was only one car in the parking lot: A light blue Camaro not unlike Healy's. A large sign with fading paint stood over the motel, depicting a large blue crescent moon that almost stretched off the sign with the building's name next to it. It was the kind of place that Healy and Holland would never want to stay at.

The moment he entered the lobby, Holland felt disgusting. The dim lighting and musty air that surrounded them made him gag on the inside. Hopefully, they could get the information they needed then get the fuck out of there. He was going to time them too. Ten minutes was all they had.

Healy and Holland approached the front desk, where a man sat in a chair against a wall covered in keys hanging on hooks. He had a newspaper pressed to his face, and the faint sounds of Jim Croce played from a small radio beside him.

"Excuse me," Holland greeted through a cough.

The man didn't look up from his paper or say a word. He was like one of the statues at the wax museum they visited a couple months back. God, those were creepy.

Holland said louder, "Uh, excuse me."

"I heard you the first time."

Healy and Holland jumped back at this. He was alive after all.

Shaking his head, Holland explained, "We're, uh, we're private detectives, and we're hoping you can help us with a case we're working on."

"Check the guestbook. Every guest signs it when they come in."

Huh. They weren't expecting him to be so easy. They never got easy ones. Something wasn't right. Maybe they just needed to egg him on a little.

Healy asked, "Would you be willing to talk to us, though? We're trying to find out about someone named Jen-"

"Look, sir, as you can see, we're very busy here. You can find everything you need in the guestbook."

Healy's eyes glanced at the wall before him, where every hook held a key. Yeah, okay. The place was just bustling with people. The nerve of this asshole.

Holland pulled an open guestbook on the desk towards them and blew the dust off its pages. It created a cloud before them, causing the two men to cough for a moment. Holland made sure to cover Huey's head when it happened so the dust couldn't reach him. The last thing he wanted to do was get him sick.

Once it receded, Holland scanned the pages until he found the name they needed clear as day. "There," he stated, jabbing his finger into the book.

Healy looked down and saw what he was pointing at. Written in scrawled blue handwriting was the name "Jenny Carraday," with the end of the Y in Carraday sliding to the other side of the page. To the right of it was the number 7, under the heading "Room No."

"Would we be able to look around Room No. 7?" Healy asked the concierge. If he could even call him that, because the guy was shit at his so-called job.

The man leaned his head back at the request and let out a groan. Never looking up, he reached his hand out as far to the left as he could until he grabbed a key on the seventh hook. He threw it at Healy, who managed to catch it in one hand with no effort.

Holland turned to his friend at the move with a baffled look on his face. Holy shit. Was Healy leading a secret life as a baseball catcher that he didn't know about? He could have been, for all he knew. Holland barely knew about Healy's past or the shit he did in his free time.

"Nice," he said to Healy, cracking a smile.

Healy shrugged with one of his own. "Thanks."

The two didn't bother to say anything else to the concierge as they left the lobby. Instead, he called to them, "Enjoy your stay at the Blue Moon."

Holland scoffed as they turned the corner and made their way down the row of motel room doors with chipping red paint. "Unbelievable. Everyone's so fucking lazy these days."

"Uh huh."

Healy was in no mood for one of Holland's "The world is going to shit" lectures. But he couldn't stop him once he started. He just had to let Holland talk until he was done.

"And they're just assholes too. You would think there'd be one decent person in this fucking city, but there isn't. They just care about themselves. I mean, Jesus..."

"I hear you."

"I'm surprised you didn't deck him, Healy. He seemed like the perfect candidate for you to bang his head into the desk or the wall or...wherever you bang heads."

It was true. Healy did enjoy banging some heads every now and then. It felt cathartic. His Word-A-Day calendar told him that meant "providing psychological relief through the open expression of strong emotions." He had made sure to remember that word.

Healy replied, "He didn't deserve it."

Holland shrugged to himself. That was fair. Save it for the real assholes like Eddie.

The two soon reached Room 7, with the silver number nailed to the door. Healy turned the key in the lock, and the door swung open with ease.

The men found themselves standing before a motel room just as grim as the lobby. The bedsheets were strewn across the mattress, the drawer in the nightstand beside it was thrown on the green carpeted floor, and there was a small hole in the dirty glass window at the back of the room. As they stepped inside, they were able to see that the bedsheets had a large amount of blood on them. It was just the kind of place a weary traveler would want to stay at to rest for the night. Well, if that weary traveler was in a horror movie.

"Jesus Christ..." Holland mused once he saw the bed.

Healy left no time to waste. He bent down to look at the drawers and said, "Come on. Let's see if we can find some clues."

Holland didn't move from his spot in the center, frozen at the sight. He looked down at Huey and found himself taking in a sharp breath.

Jenny hadn't deserved this. She should have been able to give birth with Olivia by her side in a comfortable hospital room then left to live a normal life with her new son. She shouldn't have had the best moment of her life happen in a shithole like this.

"I can't believe this is where you were born, Huey," Holland mumbled.

Healy stopped his search and sat on his knees, shaking his head with a sigh. The weight of Holland's thoughts were beginning to enter his own head. But they didn't have time to mope. They had a case to solve. Besides, it wasn't like unusual births were foreign to Healy. He had been born on a boat, after all. Mother Nature strikes when you least expect it. Or she just wants to make herself laugh.

Healy returned to the drawer and remarked, "Yeah, well, life's funny sometimes."

Holland went over to Healy and bent to his level. "Is there anything in there?"

"Nope. It's empty."

Healy tossed the drawer aside, and the two looked up at the broken window. They tilted their heads upon seeing the hole, squinting their eyes with furrowed brows.

"What the hell happened in here?" Healy asked.

"She put up quite a fight."

Healy and Holland shot up to their feet upon hearing the new voice, whirling around.

Eddie stood in the doorway with a grin that was almost a smile but was mostly a smirk. Standing on either side of him were two men with the same face, clean-cut black hair, and polished black suit. The only way to tell the difference was that the one on his right had a red handkerchief in his pocket while the one on his left had a green one.

Fixing his sleeve, Eddie explained, "We found her the day after the baby was born. She looked so tired and scared that I thought she would come right back into my arms. But no, Star decided that she wanted to play dirty. She wanted to take on Big Bad Eddie Spokane herself." Eddie chuckled to himself. "At least, she thought she could. Sure, she gave us some bruises and made a run for it, but it didn't take us long to find her."

One by one, the three men reached into their jackets and whipped out a gun, pointing them at Healy and Holland's chests. Eddie's smirk grew wider as he threw his head back.

"Oh, it felt so good to hear the bullet go through that bitch."

Holland wanted to punch him. He was more than ready to knock every last tooth out of Eddie Spokane's mouth. But the reminder of Huey in his arms and the sight of three guns aimed at him made his feet act like they were glued to the floor.

Instead, he asked in a wavering voice, "H-How did you find us?"

"Please. We've been following you two all day. We even watched you at the old broad's house." Eddie scoffed. "For a pair of detectives, you two are pretty shitty at your jobs."

"Yeah, tell us something we don't know."

Healy turned to the side and rolled his eyes. Now was not the time to lighten a tense situation with humor, even if it was true.

Eddie gestured to the man on his right and said, "Why don't you do the honors, Tommy? Take your pick on who's going down first."

The man now identified as Tommy stepped out from the side and kept his gaze on Healy. Healy's hand slid into his jacket pocket, his face hardened as he stared at the gunman before him.

With a low voice that could make a man fall to his knees, he stated, "I'd like to see you try."

His hand, now adorned with his signature brass ring, flew out of his pocket and punched Tommy's gun out of his hand. The mobster watched it fall to the side, baffled by the feat. When he turned back, Healy was there to greet him with a blow to the jaw.

Tommy fell to the ground but was quick to get back on his feet. He may have been fast, but Healy was faster. The man slammed him to the ground and held him for a moment, ready to serve another blow.

Eddie and his other henchman looked over at the fight for a moment while Holland stared at his foes. His eyes darted over to the open door beside them, and he saw the open space that awaited him outside. He didn't want to leave Healy alone with the assholes, but dammit, it was his only chance.

With his feet finally remembering how to work, Holland darted out of the room and ran towards the lobby. Sure, the concierge was an asshole too, but he had no choice but to help them. Maybe he could call the cops for them and have Eddie arrested. It would be killing two birds with one stone.

Holland pulled his hand out from under Huey and threw the lobby door open. He was greeted to the gentle sound of Jim Croce's "I Got a Name" on the radio, but all it did was make him more tense.

Holland ran to the other side of the front desk and called in a breathless voice, "Hey!"

What he found before him was their concierge friend lying on the ground in his own blood, a bleeding hole gaping through his chest.

"Ah, shit!" Holland shouted. Time for Plan B, then. If he had one.

Eddie's voice greeted from the doorway, "I see you got my gift. I thought I would let you know that you'll look exactly like that in five seconds if you don't give me my goddamn kid."

Holland watched with wide eyes as Eddie walked over to him, his foe never blinking as he extended his gun. Holland noticed the wall of keys beside him, and he got an idea. He found his Plan B.

Holland grabbed the key that was closest to him and threw it in Eddie's direction. Unfortunately, all it did was land at the crime lord's feet. Holland pulled his lips back and watched Eddie's gaze fall to the floor. That worked out a lot better in his head.

Eddie looked up at Holland and couldn't help but chuckle. "Really?"

Well, if at first you don't succeed, try try again. Holland grabbed another key and threw it at him but was stopped from a third time by a gunshot ringing past his head. The sound made him scream and drop to his knees, pushing himself to hide behind the front desk. More gunshots echoed through the room, causing Holland to scoot along the side of the desk to avoid every bullet.

Wait. God, he was such a dumbass. He had a gun too.

Holland tucked his right hand under his left arm, trying to avoid Huey's head in the process. "Sorry, Huey," he mumbled as he felt for his gun.

While Holland searched for his only weapon, Eddie was about to fire again when he saw a battered Tommy limp to his side.

"It's about time you showed up," his boss growled. "He's behind the desk. Take care of him and get the kid. Don't disappoint me."

Eddie then turned around and made his way towards the door, brushing into Tommy's shoulder as he left.

Holland was able to pull his gun from his holster without so much as a peep from Huey. Well, he wasn't making noise. The kid was starting to squirm in his arms and beginning to wake up. At least he had lasted this long. They couldn't expect him to be able to sleep through all that noise.

Holland counted to three then turned around to point his gun at Tommy. Before either man could pull the trigger, Tommy fell to the ground as the radio hit his head, ending Jim Croce once and for all.

Healy stood behind him, breathing heavily with a bloody lip. Holland found himself breathing in the same way, but it wasn't as loud or ragged as his friend's. Good old Healy. He always knew just when to step in.

As Holland stood up, he heard the sound of screeching tires from outside. The two men looked out the door and saw a tan Mercedes drive out of the parking lot and head back towards L.A. on the open road.

Holland gulped at the sight, and his adrenaline started pumping even harder. He could only imagine where Eddie was going next.

In the midst of trying to calm down the squirming Huey, Holland took a glance at his watch just for kicks. Only ten minutes had passed since their arrival.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ardent, /ahr-dnt/, adjective: having, expressive of, or characterized by intense feeling; passionate; fervent

Sitting at the kitchen bar that night with her legs dangling against the seat, Holly recorded the final answer to her algebra homework into her notebook. She put her pencil down then stared at her work with a smile. There. She knew what X equaled after all.

Seventh grade math wasn't as hard as everyone said it would be. They must have just been slacking off when they did it and said that to her to feel better about themselves. Well, look where they ended up. That's where slacking off would get you. And Holly was making damn sure that wouldn't be her.

Holly closed her notebook and her algebra textbook then sat still for a moment. She tilted her head back and sighed, reveling in the silence around her. So this is what a job well done felt like. After the hustle and bustle was over, the peace and quiet revealed itself and invited itself in. And it felt really fucking good.

With the night still young and her homework out of the way, Holly knew exactly how to spend the rest of her night. She would hide in her room and curl up on her bed with the new _Nancy_ _Drew_  book she'd been reading. It was just starting to get good too. If she was lucky, she may even be able to finish it tonight. Screw the fact that it was a school night. The world was at Holly's feet, and she could do whatever the hell she liked.

Holly gathered up her things then strode over to her room with a grin from ear to ear. She didn't even step through the doorframe when she saw what was awaiting her inside. Healy sat in her desk chair with Huey in his arms, talking quietly to the baby to get him to sleep.

Just like that, reality came back to Holly. Her room was no longer hers. She was sharing it with a baby she didn't ask for. He would have been gone three days ago if her dad could just do his fucking job for once. But no, that was too much to hope for. Hoping was dangerous to practice in their house.

With a loud grunt, Holly tossed her schoolbooks into a chair in the living room, never taking her eyes off the damn kid that was invading her space.

Once her hands were free, she stormed over to the minibar in the living room, ignoring Healy's call of, "Holly?"

Holly tried to create a plan of action on where to go as she made her way around the counter. The lot was an option. Holly always went there when she was upset or angry at anything and everything. But she had been dead set on spending the night at home, so she had to find a place where she could get some damn space. Luckily, she knew just the place. She just needed some supplies first.

Holly grabbed the metal ice bucket, filled to the brim with large ice cubes, at the end of the counter and made her way back around the bar. Without another word, she stomped over to the glass door to the backyard, slid it open, then slammed it shut as she stepped outside.

It wasn't long before Holland entered the scene, jittery from the noise. "What was that?" he asked Healy, who was perched in the bedroom doorway.

"Holly went out back."

Out back? Holly didn't go out back. Well, not willingly. Most of the time, she went out there to try to bring Holland to bed when he was too drunk to function. But she never went out there just because. Yup. Something was definitely wrong.

Holland asked, "What for?"

"I...I..." Healy choked up on his words and shrugged way more than he should have in the ten seconds he spoke. Even he didn't know what was going on with Holly. No matter how hard he tried, he could never understand teenagers. The only thing Healy was able to say was, "She took the ice bucket."

Holland whipped his head over to the back door with his eyebrows raised to the middle of his forehead. Whatever this was, it was serious. This could only mean that it was time for him to go into Full Dad Mode.

Holland went over to the back door and opened it to find Holly sitting on the diving board, throwing ice cubes into the empty pool. It was a weird choice for moping spots since Holly liked to be as far away from the house as possible to mope. The diving board was usually Holland's spot. This couldn't be moping, then. No, this was pure anger.

Holland shut the door behind him and made his way over to Holly's side. The girl had a nasty scowl on her face and made a small grunt with each ice cube she threw. Holland's head was telling him to run back inside and wait until she was calm again. Any normal person would run the moment they saw a teenage girl with this much fury being unleashed. But Holland March was not a normal person.

"Hey, hey, hey," he greeted as he sat beside her, arms extended out of caution. "What's all this about?"

"He's still here!" Holly chucked another ice cube and heard it crack against the pool wall. God, that felt good.

For Holland, the sound made a chill go down his spine. If he wasn't careful, he might feel it for real if Holly decided throw one at him next.

He asked, "Who?"

Holly rolled her eyes with a scoff. Was he really that fucking thick? "The kid in my room!"

"What, Huey?"

"That's a stupid name for him."

Holland looked away from his daughter and tried to hide the lump rising in his throat. Up until that moment, he thought Huey was a great name. It was simple and cute, just like him. But hearing someone besides Healy say it made him realize that he could have done a little better. He didn't work well under pressure. If he'd just had a little more time to think. And a warning that Huey would be staying at their house would have been nice too.

Once he swallowed his pride, Holland sighed. "Look, Holly, it's not my fault. Okay, his name is my fault, but him being here isn't. His dad found us again today, so now we have to protect him more than ever."

"No, you don't! The first thing you should have done when you found him was call the police and get him into Child Protective Services or something like that! They would have taken care of everything! This is their _job_ , Dad. It's not yours. So for once in your life, stop being a hero and start being my dad!"

Shit. That one stung. Holland couldn't tell if that's what she wanted to happen, but it did. A thought then crossed his mind, and he knew exactly what this was all about.

"Hang on. Is this about me forgetting about you on Sunday?"

"No!" Holly groaned. Jesus Christ. Her grudges were legendary, but they didn't last _that_  long.

Her ice cube throwing became more rapid fire, throwing one down by the second. "This is about you and the constant changes between us and your wanting to save everyone and your doing things without telling anyone first and your taking in another kid when you can barely take care of one and-"

Holly felt a hand on her shoulder as she raised the next ice cube over her head. With her breathing growing heavy, she looked over and saw Holland looking at her with the most heartbreaking pair of eyes he could make.

"Is that what you think?" he asked. His voice was so quiet when he said it that it started cracking. "That I don't take care of you?"

Holly lowered her arm and looked down at her dangling feet. She regretted every word she said the moment she heard the hurt in her father's voice. Damn her temper. Holland couldn't blame her, though. After all, she got it from him.

Holland moved his hand from her shoulder to her own hand and said, "Holly, look at me."

Holly didn't want to, but she made herself look up anyway. It would only get worse if she didn't the first time. She hoped her father couldn't see the tears forming in her eyes once she looked at him.

"Sweetheart, I _know_ things went to shit for us a year ago. I lived through it with you. And after your mom died..." Holland hated the world and those in charge of it every time he had to say that. "...I knew that I had to step up and be both parents to you. I had to keep up the morale and tell you that everything would be okay. But you know, the alcohol didn't let me do that."

A chuckle left his mouth after he said it. It was inappropriate, but everything about him was. It was only fitting.

"But I keep telling myself that I'm a dad. I'm _your_ dad. I have a job to do. An important one. And it doesn't involve taking pictures of two-timing old men."

Both of them chuckled now. Holland really knew how to ease the mood.

He continued, "Holly, I am _always_ thinking about you. You are the only thing on my mind each day. Holly, you're the reason that I haven't been found dead behind a bar yet. I wake up every morning, I get clients, and I go around the city to solve all these cases. And the entire time, I'm telling myself that I'm doing this for you. I'm doing this so you'll have money to go to college and start your dream job and get everything you want in life. I'm doing this so...so you won't have to tell everyone that you have a cheap bum for a father. I'm doing this so I can be the parent that you need in your life.

“And I guess...I guess that's why I took Huey in too. He didn't have a dad when we found him, and his real one turned out to be a murderous asshole. So I just felt like I could...start over with him. I could be a good dad to him from the beginning. But I guess being a good dad to him made me a worse dad to you."

Holland pulled his lips back and felt the tears forming in his eyes. He didn't want to start crying in front of her, but fuck it. Sometimes, it was the only thing you could do.

"Holly, I care about you so much. I am _so_ sorry if I haven't been doing such a good job of showing it lately. But I don't want you to _ever_ think that I don't. I love you with all my heart. Okay?"

Those were the words that did her in. With no holding back, Holly let out the ugliest sob she could make and leaned into her father's chest. Holland didn't care that her tears were staining his shirt. In times like this, he would wear a sopping mess if it meant he had cheered her up.

"Alright, sweetheart. It's okay," he soothed, feeling his own tears start to fall as well. God dammit. He didn't want to start crying too. Now they would be a sobbing mess all night.

Holly choked out, "I'm sorry."

"I know. It's okay."

"You're a good dad...and I'm sorry."

"I know. I know you are. It's okay."

"I l-love you, Dad."

Holland squeezed his daughter tighter for as long as he could. He had to make sure that he was getting his point across.

"I love you too, Holly."

As she cried into her father's shoulder, Holly felt relief begin to course through her. That could only mean one thing: Her grudge was gone for good.


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bulwark, /buhl-wawrk/, noun: any protection against external danger, injury, or annoyance

"So where are we going again?" Holly asked from the passenger seat of Healy's Camaro. She had come home from school the next day and only gotten an hour of homework done when her father dragged her outside to take a ride with them. Well, not physically dragged. Holland was never that aggressive with her. And thank God for that. Social Services would have been on his ass months ago if he had.

Holly knew she was coming out of their fear of her being left home alone, but she hadn't been informed of where they were going. This led to her staring out the window in a daze for the past ten minutes, watching the city roll by until the buildings stopped looking so nice. Holly would have preferred being home alone over this. It suddenly seemed much safer than the area she found herself in. It probably was, but dads will be dads.

Sitting behind the wheel, Healy replied, "We're going to visit our client, the one that hired us to find Huey's mom."

"Huey's dad knows where we live now, and he's still out there," Holland spoke up from the back seat. "But we trust Olivia. She knows Jenny better than we do. She probably would have wanted Huey to be with her if something happened to her. Which, you know, it did."

Holland looked down at Huey in his arms, who stayed so peaceful and snuggled against his chest. He was going to miss seeing that little face in his arms, even if it did remind him of how rough parenting really was when it begins. But he'd do anything to make sure Huey was with someone who would raise him right. He mumbled, "He'll be safe with her."

As Healy drove under a green light, Holland found himself staring out the window. He watched the apartment buildings fall behind him and fade into the distance until they couldn't be reached.

"Didn't you pass it?" he asked Healy.

"What?"

"Wasn't Olivia's apartment that way?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

Healy felt his hands grip tighter around the wheel. He never liked Backseat Driver March. But he always knew how to put him in his place.

"March, I've driven here two times now. I think I know where I'm going."

"But weren't we supposed to turn right at the second light?"

"No. We're supposed to turn right at the _third_  light." Jesus Christ. The man had no faith in him sometimes. Healy knew what the fuck he was doing. He didn't need Holland to make him start doubting that. God.

Holland added, "But I counted two the other day."

Holly propped her head in her hand and shook her head as she stared out the window. Interfering would only make things worse. They were adults. They could handle this. Although, it was times like these that made her question if she was the only _real_  adult in the family.

Healy said, "March, I'm telling you. There are three."

"Well, I don't want us getting there and realizing it's not her place so then, we have to turn around and go on a wild goose chase for the rest of-"

Neither man could hear Holly's cry of, "Guys!"

In an instant, their car tapped against the fender of the one in front of them, making both cars stop in the middle of the street. The three passengers were frozen in their seats, unable to look away from the dent that was now present in the tan Mercedes ahead of them. Holland was the first to bring them out of their shock.

"Hey! It wasn't me this time! Way to go, Healy!"

Healy's eye roll would have been reserved for that comment alone, but its effect was doubled once Huey started crying. Holly joined in on the eye rolling while Holland winced to himself. Shit. He hadn't thought he was _that_ loud. Why did babies have to be so goddamn sensitive?

Holland made a small groan as he bounced Huey in his arms. "Shhhh, I'm sorry, Huey," he soothed. "I'm sorry. It's okay." He was surprised that Huey hadn't woken up from the accident. He was probably going to be one of those "can sleep through a hurricane" kind of kids.

As Huey began to quiet down, the group stepped out of the car and made their way over to the car in front of them. They each had their head lowered in shame because it was a stupid way to get into an accident. But like everything in their lives, it was all because of Holland being a dumbass.

Healy sighed, "Look, I'm very sorry about all this. I wasn't paying attention. If you want, I can pay for the damage."

"Oh, money isn't what I want from you."

Each person felt a shiver run down their spine when they heard the man's voice. They looked up and stiffened at the sight of Eddie and his remaining associate step out from their car. They walked over to the group and each brandished a gun, but they were set on different sights. Eddie's smirk was flashed at Holland while his associate's glare was aimed at Healy. He had a bone to pick with him for smashing his brother's head in with a radio.

Eddie greeted, "Hello again. It was nice of you to bring my boy here. That will make everything go much smoother." His eyes drifted over to Holly, who had sidestepped closer to Healy. "Well, hello. Who do we have here?"

"None of your fucking business," Healy said as he stepped in front of her. He found himself blocking Holland and Huey as well, acting as a shield for the entire March family.

Eddie asked, "Oh, is that so? Well, no matter. I'm only here for one thing anyway."

Both men cocked their guns and aimed again.

"Give me my kid," Eddie growled.

No one moved. Healy's feet were firm in the ground, and a glare of his own had appeared on his face. His hand was in his jacket pocket, ready to whip out his old friend at any time.

After a moment of silence, Eddie shrugged. "Well, you leave me with no choice."

Eddie couldn't even pull the trigger before Healy could say, "Yeah, me too."

The brass ring was back in action, and it made contact with Eddie's ribs. The crime boss was sent to the pavement and groaned out in pain.

"Why, you son of a-" he started as he pushed himself up. Before he could plant himself on his feet, Healy knocked him back down and gripped his wrist.

"I think you're the bitch here, buddy," he growled.

Holland couldn't watch the scene any longer. He wanted to intervene more than anything, but Huey was the most important thing at the moment. And he needed to be safe and fast.

Holland turned around and saw a patch of green hill close by down the street. Huh. How long had a park been there? That was good to know.

He started to run towards it when he remembered the fourth member of their party. He turned back and saw Holly watching the scene in horror, frozen in place on the sidewalk.

"Holly, come on!" he called.

"But Mr. Healy-"

"He's fine, Holly! You've seen him in worse situations! Now come on!"

Holly looked between her father and her best friend, her breathing growing more rapid by the second. Sure, Healy was a grown man and could handle himself just fine, but the good person in her wanted to go over and pull him out of the fight. But her father was doing his job for once. He was trying to protect her. How could she say no to him?

With a small sigh, Holly turned around and ran after Holland. She barely took five strides before she felt herself yanked back by her shirt collar. Shit. This wasn't supposed to happen. She was supposed to know what she was doing.

Wait. Holly did know what she was doing. Healy hadn't taught her self-defense tactics from his Learning Adjacent classes for nothing.

In a swift move, Holly sent her fist up on her captor's shoulder then her heel into his ankle. The man cried out in pain and freed his grip on Holly, allowing her to break free. She took a moment to breathe then turned around to see who it was she was facing.

To her relief, it wasn't Eddie. It was only his associate with some bruises on the left side of his face from the day before. Healy must have really did a number on him.

While the man stumbled to his feet and rubbed his shoulder, Holly stood firm before him and clenched her fists. "I may not like him too much," she said more gravelly than she meant to, "But I'm not letting you get your hands on Huey."

The associate didn't have time to play with little girls. "Big or small, we take 'em down." That's what Eddie had always told him. The little bitch was no different, and it was time to put her in her place. With a heavy breath, the associate pulled up his gun and aimed it directly at Holly's forehead.

Holly stood her ground but felt the tears begin to sting in her eyes. She'd do anything to make sure that kid with her dad was safe. If it meant taking a bullet for him, so be it. The plus side was she could say hi to her mom in a few minutes.

Holly closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable shot to ring out. What she heard instead was a grunt and a smacking against the pavement.

Holly opened her eyes and found a panting Healy standing over the associate's body, his head now twisted in a way that it probably shouldn't have been. Healy was banged up himself, his face red with some bruises here and there. His knuckles were cut like hell, and there was some blood coming out of the right ones. He put up quite a fight back there.

Holly let herself go when she saw him and ran into his arms, her breathing coming out in choked up sobs.

"You're okay. You're okay, Holly," Healy whispered. "You're not hurt, are you?" He'd give the guy another punch for good measure if she was.

Lucky for him, Holly shook her head against his chest. When she calmed down, she pulled herself away and watched as Healy rubbed at his knuckles. God, that hurt.

Pointing ahead, he asked, "Your dad went that way?"

"Yeah."

"Come on. We'll go meet him."

The two started running ahead but stopped when Healy said, "Wait."

They froze on the street and stood in place, Healy's head looking around at every angle. With wide eyes, he asked, "Where's Eddie?"

~

Despite holding a newborn baby in his arms, Holland reached the park in record time. He spotted a tree once he reached the top of the hill and hid behind it, pressing his back against it. His breathing grew heavy as he slid against the bark and sat down on the cold grass.

All the commotion had become too much for Huey, and he cried and squirmed in Holland's arms. Holland couldn't blame him, though. He couldn't expect him to stay calm for long with this much action.

"Shhhhh shh shh shh. It's okay, Huey. It's okay," Holland whispered. "Mr. March is here. I've got you. We're...We're okay up here. We're going to be just fine." God, he hoped that were true.

Holland continued shushing Huey and bounced him in his arms. It was funny. It was almost working on calming him down too. Maybe this shit really did work.

The moment he didn't feel on edge anymore, a voice greeted from behind, "Found you."

Holland yelped and shot up to his feet, turning around to see his foe. Eddie stood a few feet away from him, chuckling to himself with a small smirk. He was hunched over with blood beginning to seep through his suit, but his voice still sounded as menacing as ever.

"Of course, it wasn't hard," he said as he pulled out his gun. The movement was slow, as he tried to keep himself upright and panted while he did it. "I just followed the sound of my boy crying. You do know why he's crying, don't you?"

"Because you're forcing him to run for his life?"

Holland pat himself on the back for that one. Even in near-death situations, he could crack a quip. Well, it was a metaphorical pat, anyway. He was holding Huey, so no free hands.

Eddie replied, "Because he wants his dad. Well, guess what? I'm right here. So why don't we do this the easy way? You just hand him over, and I let your family off the hook and never see you again. It's a win-win for everyone involved."

"And let you turn him into a criminal? I don't think so."

Eddie shook his head and clucked his tongue. "You sound just like my Little Star. She used to be so nice. But then, she got herself pregnant and decided to not be so nice anymore. Now I know my girl wouldn't have wanted any of this to happen. Oh no, she went on and on about how we were going to be the perfect little family. If Star were here right now, she'd want me to have our baby so I could raise him right. So I think that's what you should do too. Unless you want a bullet in your body, which I could happily arrange."

Holland kept a steady glare aimed at Eddie and clutched Huey tighter to his chest. Fine. Let him get shot. He'd been through a shit ton worse in his life. Holland would take a hundred bullets if it meant Huey was safe from the bastard who called himself his father.

While staring down his foe, Holland saw something out of the corner of his eye and dug his feet deeper into the dirt. "There's a lot wrong with what you just said, Mr. Spokane. But there's one thing you definitely got wrong."

Eddie scoffed. "And what's that?"

"Her name was Jenny."

Before he could react, Eddie found himself falling to the ground, the mark of a gun barrel creased into his neck. Healy stood over him and held the gun over the body with Holly by his side. He bent down and pressed the gun against Eddie's head, pushing his head further into the dirt. "Stay down," he growled.

With the little freedom he had, Holland reached into his holster and pulled out his gun, doing the same action as Healy. Healy was a little annoyed that he was stealing his thunder, but the feeling didn't last long.

The group was brought to their senses when they heard the sound of police sirens screeching towards them in the distance.

"That's the cops," Holly said. She made her way over to Eddie's face and looked him dead in the eye. "And they're not here for us."

~

The cops threw handcuffs around Eddie's wrists within minutes of arriving. They hauled him into a cop car and locked the door tight to ensure no funny business would be pulled.

Holland stood next to the car and glared at Eddie from outside. He looked almost pitiful with the way he was hunched over and how pale he was. Holland didn't feel any pity, though. In fact, he felt pretty damn powerful. He trusted the justice system to give him what he deserved.

Holland raised Huey higher in his arms and stated, "Take a good look at your son, Mr. Spokane."

Eddie turned to the window, showing off the sweat dripping from his pale brow. Although, it might have been blood. He couldn't check and see. But something was falling down the side of his face, and he wished he could wipe it away. He wanted to smack the private detective gloating with his son too. But handcuffs were a lot tighter than he thought they'd be.

His face unchanging, Holland continued, "Because you're never going to see him again."

Without another word, he walked away from the car and made his way over to Healy and Holly. The two were talking to Mulroney down the street and explaining the situation to him. Holland joined them just when Mulroney decided to talk.

"I can't believe you found Eddie Fucking Spokane!" Mulroney winced and looked down at Holly. "Sorry, sweetheart."

"It's fine." Holly held back an eye roll for her father's friend. Would adults ever learn that they could curse around her? God, she hoped so. It was getting ridiculous.

Mulroney continued, "We've been tracking down this guy for months, March. We didn't have leads or anything. But here he is, just waltzing into your life. And you beat the crap out of him in one quick move. You're something, March."

"Ah, well," Holland chuckled as a blush appeared on his cheeks. He looked away for a moment before adding, "You know, Healy's actually the one that did the beating."

"Really?" Mulroney turned to Healy with a tiny grin. "You gave him the-" He moved his finger across his forehead, trying to describe the gash Eddie now had.

Healy shrugged. "Yeah."

"Nice! You'll have to teach me that sometime. Well, I better get this guy behind bars before he tries to break out. It was good to see you guys again. You have a good night now!"

"See ya!" the Marches called after their friend.

Mulroney made his way over to the car and let his foot skip in his step. Something exciting had finally happened to him on the job. And it felt fucking fantastic.

The Marches were about to head over to their car when a voice greeted, "Excuse me."

They looked ahead and saw an older African American woman in a black pantsuit walk over to them. Her black hair was tied back in a bun, and her face said that she was kind but disagreeing with her wasn't an option. She looked like she belonged in an office rather than a crime scene, which made her appearance a little more terrifying.

"Would one of you happen to be Mr. Holland March?" she asked.

Holland replied, "That would be me." He tried to pull his hand out from under Huey so he could shake her hand.

While she outstretched her own, she explained, "I'm Wendy Freeman. I work with Social Services."

"Pleasure to meet you, ma'am."

"Would that baby you have happen to be the son of Miss Jenny Carraday?"

"Uh, yes. Yes, this is him." Holland took a quick glance down at Huey and made a silent sigh when he saw he was back asleep. He knew he just needed a break from the action.

He continued, "We were on our way to bring him to a friend of hers, Olivia Macintosh. We were hoping she would be able to take him into her custody."

"I'm afraid that won't be possible, Mr. March."

The group's smiles faded, and they braced for the worst of the news. They had a feeling they knew what she was going to say, but they needed to hear it for themselves.

"I received a call from Miss Macintosh earlier today where she explained the situation to me. She told me to seek you out because she planned on leaving town today...and had no intention of coming back. She's been very scared that Mr. Spokane was going to come after her, so she wanted to get as far away from him as possible."

Each of the Marches' shoulders slumped down their sides. That wasn't the exact news they were expecting to hear. It was better, even. But it was still pretty shitty news to receive. They would had been driving all this way just to find an empty apartment.

"Oh," the group chorused, unable to hide their disappointment.

Wendy continued, "Miss Macintosh told me to find you since you were in possession of the child. I was on my way to your house when I saw the scene and decided to check it out. And I'd say it's a good thing I did."

A smile began to appear on her face, which eased their nerves a little. Yup. They could definitely trust her.

Healy spoke up, "Mrs. Freeman, if Olivia's gone, then...what's going to happen to Hu...the baby?"

"Well, I did some investigating before I left, but unfortunately, neither Miss Carraday nor Mr. Spokane have any relatives that he can be placed in the custody of. This means that the baby will be placed in the foster care system, and we'll search for a home for him as soon as possible."

Holland's head drifted down to his feet, and he made a small nod. After all this time, Huey didn't have a family. He really was alone now. It made him want to cry just thinking about it.

"I understand," Holland choked out.

Wendy said, "You won't have to hand him over right away, though. I'll let you have one more night with him, but I would like you to come by my office with him tomorrow morning."

"Yes, of course. I...I can do that. Thank you." Holland's voice had grown quiet, and he still couldn't look Wendy in the eye. He hadn't felt this numb since his wife died. God, remembering that just made it worse.

Wendy extended a business card with her office address printed on it out to him then realized that his hands were full. Healy took it instead and said, "Thank you."

"You should be proud of yourself, Mr. March. You've been doing a very good thing." Wendy glanced at the group with a warmth in her eyes then turned around to leave the scene.

Once she was gone, Healy tapped Holland's shoulder and mumbled, "We, uh, we should go. Come on."

The group made their way back over to their car, which had almost no trace of hitting a mob boss's car on it. The only damage was a small dent under the front left headlight that could fixed in no time. Healy was almost impressed. He wasn't such a bad driver after all.

Once it was unlocked, the Marches stepped into the car and slammed the doors behind them. Huey started crying again about a second after they were inside. Everyone tilted their head back in their seats and let out a loud groan.

"Oh my god."

"You've got to be kidding me."

"We were so close."

"We were _this_ close."

"Alright, just...just start driving, Healy," Holland said. "I got him."

Healy shook his head with a sigh then turned the key in the ignition. As the car drove off through the city, Holland kept his eyes on Huey and bounced him in his arms.

He soothed, "Shhhh, you're okay, Huey. You're okay now, buddy. It's okay. Don't cry. It's okay."

He soon started singing "Dream a Little Dream" to him as he had every night since they brought him home. It worked like a charm and quieted him down for the rest of the drive.

When they got home and Holland had tucked him into his makeshift bed, he sang it to him again for good measure. He rubbed his finger along Huey's cheek and made a silent sigh at him. There were some nights where Holland wished tomorrow would never come and it would stay tonight forever. This was one of them.

When he was ready, he leaned down and planted a gentle kiss on Huey's head. "Good night, Huey," he whispered.

Holland then turned around and left the room so Huey could sleep. Even though it was hard to with the anticipation of the next day on his mind, he could rest easy knowing that Huey was safe once and for all.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fosterage, /faw-ster-ij/, noun: the act of fostering or rearing another's child as one's own

Holland couldn't take his eyes off Huey all morning. He sat in the Social Services waiting room the next day with his back pressed against the wall in a tiny chair. His head was cocked to the side as he stared down at Huey, watching him sleep against his suit jacket.

It was going to be weird not seeing him there every day. Sure, Holland would finally be able to move his arms around again, but he would miss feeling his head move up and down on his chest with every breath he made. Hopefully, his new mom and dad, whoever they'd be, would feel the same way whenever they looked at him.

It wasn't long before Holland registered how quiet the waiting room was. It was too damn quiet for his liking. Where the fuck was everyone? It was a weekday, wasn't it? Sure, it was Friday and Easter was on Sunday, but there had to be _someone_ who was in need of Social Services.

Shit. Sunday was two days away. The Marches had first met Huey the Sunday before. Had it really been almost a week since then? Jesus. Time flies when you have a kid to raise.

Grinning from ear to ear, Holland looked over at Healy and saw his friend staring at the wall across from them. He could see from his vacant expression that his friend was a million miles away. Time to bring him back to Earth.

"Hey," Holland mumbled, giving him a tap with his elbow.

Healy shook his head and felt himself fall back to reality. Shit, how long had he been gone? No matter. Maybe Holland hadn't noticed.

Healy looked over to hear his friend say, "Look."

Holland gestured his head over to Huey, and Healy looked down at him. "Awwww," he mused. 

Huey sure looked cute sleeping there. He was pretty good for a newborn too. Healy was glad that he was his first baby.

Just then, a voice greeted, "Mr. March?"

The two men looked over and saw that a petite blonde had entered the room. She was cute but nothing special. Just another average Jane in the workplace.

"Mrs. Freeman is ready for you," she told them.

Healy and Holland looked at each other and made a silent sigh. There was no going back now.

The two stood up and followed the woman through the hall until they reached a room in the middle. She opened the door and poked her head in to say, "He's here, Mrs. Freeman."

"Excellent. Send him in."

The woman stepped to the side and let Holland and Healy enter the office. It looked like every important office they'd had to enter throughout their lives, complete with a dark wooden desk covered in papers, two chairs in front of it, and a bookshelf against the back wall that towered to the ceiling and was covered in books that were only there for decoration. It was just like every government office. Maybe someday, someone would be brave enough to break the system.

Wendy smiled at the two men before her and stood up from her desk. "I'm glad you could come, Mr. March," she greeted as she shook his hand.

Holland shrugged. "Well, I didn't really have a choice in the matter, did I?"

Shit, Holland. Now wasn't the time for jokes. He wasn't scared of the government, but he should have been. And if there was any branch that he should be scared of, it was Social Services. They could determine if he lived or died after one wrong move.

Wendy turned to Healy but found herself pulling her hand back. "I'm so sorry. I met you last night, but I never caught your name."

"Jackson Healy." He would have followed it with, "It happens all the time," but he didn't want to look like a dick in front of someone he trusted. That was more Holland's style, anyway. No, just shake the nice woman's hand and move on with your life, Jack.

Once introductions were out of the way, everyone sat down into their respective seats to begin the proceedings. Wendy said, "I hope last night wasn't too much trouble for you."

"Oh, no, not at all," Holland replied. "He's been with us so long that I've gotten used to it. Well, I mean, he did get up at one point in the night, but that's normal for babies."

"Four," Healy spoke up.

Holland looked over and saw his friend rubbing the bridge of his nose. It was like he could feel the lack of sleep returning to him.

"He got up four times last night."

"Right, but I just meant 'one' as a collective."

"So just say he got up in the night."

"I did."

"Yeah, but you threw a number in there, and now it's just confusing."

"Alright, you know what? We don't have time for this."

"Right. I'm sorry." Healy looked away and continued rubbing his bridge, unable to hide the blush forming on his cheeks.

Ignoring their banter, Wendy cleared her throat. "Well, if you're ready, Mr. March, I have the paperwork right here. You can just sign at the bottom, hand the baby over, and he'll become a ward of the state."

Holland stared at the paperwork before him, the black line waiting for his name glaring up at him. A ballpoint pen was placed beside it, the tip crusted with black ink that signed the names of other people giving away the ones they loved.

Holland looked between Huey, the paper, then back at Huey, keeping his eyes on him. God, he wanted to end this. But at the same time, he didn't. He didn't want to sign away the one part of this case that they were successful in. He couldn't give him to people who didn't know the first thing about parenting and were just doing it for the money. He knew Jenny wouldn't have wanted that.

The thought had first come to Holland the night before, when he couldn't fall back asleep after the third time Huey woke him up. He kept it at the back of his head, but he never planned on saying it. It looked like the lump rising in his throat was going to make him, though. It wouldn't let him breathe again unless he said it.

Holland looked up at Wendy and asked, "Mrs. Freeman...what if...what if I adopted him?"

Healy and Wendy each looked at him with wide eyes. That was the last thing they had expected to hear that day.

Holland couldn't stop once he started. "I mean, he's been staying with us since Sunday, so he's used to us by now. I don't know how he's going to act with someone he doesn't know. A-And it's not like I don't have the experience. I have a thirteen-year-old daughter at home. Well, not at home. She...She's at school right now. But I do raise her, so I know what it's like. And I have a stable job, and I don't plan on changing that. I'm self-employed, so I don't have to worry about potentially being fired or anything like that. A-And the environment's safe. It's a very secluded cul-de-sac with a bunch of other families there. I'll protect him. I'll make sure of it. I promise."

"If you need a reference," Healy spoke up, "I can guarantee that there's no one more qualified to do this than him."

Holland looked over at him and tried to stop the tears rising in his eyes. Healy gave him a tiny smile and nodded. Holland wasn't the only one that wanted this.

Wendy stared at the two men and felt her heart begin to swell. There were days when she dreaded going into the office, but it was times like these that reminded her about the good side of it. Ah, hell. It wasn't the usual way the adoption process went, but they'd given her all the credentials she needed. She could cheat the system just this once.

"You're absolutely sure you want to do this, Mr. March?" Wendy asked. "You can't change your mind if you do."

Holland nodded his head as quickly as he could. "I've never been more sure of anything in my life."

"It's true. He hasn't," Healy spoke up.

Wendy chuckled. "Well, that settles it." She pulled the original form away from Holland and sifted through her desk drawer for another. She soon pulled out a paper that looked similar to the first, but the word "Adoption" could be seen at the top.

Grabbing the pen, Wendy looked at Holland and asked, "So what's this little guy's name?"

"Uh, Huey. H-U-E-Y," he said as a smile formed on his face.

"And were you planning on a middle name?"

Holland looked over at Healy with his new grin. "You pick. I got to give him his first name. It's only fair."

Healy began to grin as well as a name popped into his head. It was a name he'd always planned on giving his son if he had one. At last, that day had come.

"Patrick."

"Huey Patrick. It has a nice ring to it," Wendy remarked as she wrote it down. When she placed her signature at the bottom of the form, she turned it over to Holland and handed over the pen. "Just sign at the bottom, and you'll be free to go."

Holland didn't hesitate this time. He grabbed the pen and scribbled his signature as fast as he could.

Wendy pulled the form and pen back then folded her hands on her desk. She declared, "Congratulations, Mr. March. It's a boy."

Holland didn't give two shits that his cheeks were starting to hurt from smiling so much. They were going to stay that way and like it, for all he cared.

"Thank you," he said as he shot up to his feet. "Thank you so much. Really."

Healy began to stand up as well and repeated, "Thank you."

"I'll leave you to be with your new son. Have a good weekend."

"Th-Thank you!" the two chorused. They made their way over to the door and stepped outside the office.

When they shut the door behind them, they cheered and began pumping their arms in the air. "Yes! Yes! Yes!"

The two couldn't help but laugh as they celebrated their victory. They were about to lean in to give each other the tightest hug they could muster, but Holland stopped it by stepping back.

"Ahhh, watch the kid, watch the kid!" he cried.

"Right, right." They couldn't risk crushing Huey when he'd just joined the family for good.

The two took a moment to calm down, taking a deep breath as they stood in place. When he was ready, Holland said, "Come on. Let's go home."

Healy couldn't argue with that. Without another word, the two made their way back to the front of the office with the newest member of the family by their side.


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ménage, /mey-nahzh/, noun: a domestic establishment; household; family

The students at the local middle school burst out the front doors once the last bell rang. Preteens of every size clumped together as a group and made their way to the buses or their parents' waiting cars parked at the front of the school.

Holly was among the kids that afternoon, babbling to her friends about how their English teacher was a real bitch for giving them a long report to do that was due the next week. It wasn't long before she perked her head up and saw Healy's friendly face standing in front of his car, giving her a small wave. Holly waved back then turned to her friends.

"I'll see you later, guys," she told them before running off. Grabbing the strap on her backpack, she ran over to Healy then stopped to give him a hug. "Hey, Mr. Healy."

"Hey, Holly. You ready?"

"Yeah."

As Healy stepped into the driver's seat, Holly made her way over to the passenger's and threw her backpack on the floor. Climbing inside the car, she asked, "Where's Dad?"

"He just had to run some errands. He'll probably be back at the same time as us."

"Ah." Holly nodded to herself and leaned back in her seat. It made sense. He'd been so busy with Huey that he probably didn't have time to get any regular errands done. It looked like things were back to normal after all.

Healy turned the key in the ignition and let the car roar to life. He eased his foot on the gas then pulled into the street to drive off to Home Sweet Home.

As they turned the corner, Healy asked, "How was school?"

"Fine. Same as usual. Janet bragged to us about her family's fancy Easter Brunch this weekend _again_."

Healy let out a tired sigh. "She's brought this up for, what, three weeks now?"

"Uh huh."

"Geez." Healy shook his head as they pulled away from a stop sign. "You'd think she'd know when enough was enough."

"That's Janet for you."

"You see, it's easier nowadays to pick out which kids are going to be trouble once they get older. With my generation, you had to wait until they made front page news one day for all of the dumb shit they did."

Holly let out a giggle, which made Healy laugh along with her. God, she loved Healy. He got her in a way that none of her friends or her dad ever could. Sure, she'd hang out with the other girls after school or on weekends now and then, but all in all, Healy was her real friend.

Once the ride was quiet again, Holly asked, "So Huey's gone?"

Healy let out another sigh. "Yeah. We brought him this morning. Your dad signed a paper and handed him right over. He's off to go to a family of his own now."

Jesus, he was making Huey sound like a lost puppy. Well, he kind of was. He was the human version of a lost puppy.

Holly nodded to herself and stared at her feet, letting the silence of the ride envelope her. She blinked for a moment, as if she were holding back tears, but that wasn't what was rising. It was a lump in her throat that was trying to get out. It had started from her heart and worked its way up to the top.

Damn feelings. She was a teenager. She wasn't supposed to let out her feelings. If she did, they were anger. It had been working well for the most part. Time to break the record.

"You know...I'm going to miss him."

Healy felt himself grip the steering wheel tighter. Not by much, but enough that he wasn't loose with it anymore. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. It'll be weird to have the house so quiet again."

"Says the girl who hated Huey's guts from Day 1."

Holly felt a smirk creep onto her face as she rolled her eyes. They were never going to let her live that down, huh? She guessed she deserved it, though.

"Well, yeah, but after a while, I saw how happy he made you guys. I liked how cute you were with him. I could tell that you meant it. I haven't seen Dad be like that with someone in...a long time. And you-" Holly turned her smirk onto Healy. "That's the first time I've ever seen you with a baby."

"Hey, it was my first time too."

"Well, you did good with him."

"Thanks, Holly."

"Do you think you'll be ready the second time?"

"Oh, not by a mile."

Their laughter returned and stayed that way for another minute before they pulled up to the house. Holly picked up her backpack and walked towards the house, not noticing Healy trailing behind. He watched her walk ahead with a large grin then decided to follow her lead.

The two barely had time to close the door behind them before they could hear, "Surprise!"

Holly looked ahead and felt her backpack drop to her side when she saw what was before her. Holland stood against the wall with Huey cradled in one arm. The other held a balloon the size of his head that floated above him with the words "It's a boy!" printed on it in curlicue blue letters.

The only thing Holly could say was, "Wh...What?"

"Holly, I'd like you to meet your new brother, Huey Patrick March."

"Wh...But..." Holly whipped her head around to face Healy, who was smirking like the cheeky bastard he was. She started, "But you said-"

"Hey, he did say, 'Surprise.'"

"I did some sweet talking with Social Services, and they let us adopt him. He's here for good now. I hope you don't mind sharing your room forever now," Holland explained.

Too thrilled to let out a comprehensive sentence, Holly replied, "Are you kidding? This is..."

This couldn't be a dream, could it? Maybe she should check.

Holly ran over to her bedroom and looked in the doorway, gasping when she saw what was there. Across from the foot of her bed was a newly built crib and changing table pressed against the wall, ready to be put to use. Holly didn't even care that one of her desks would probably have to be tossed or moved somewhere else now. She didn't need two desks anyway.

"I don't mind at all," she breathed. "He can stay for the rest of his life, if he wants to."

"Well, he doesn't really have a choice, does he?"

Holly turned around to find her dad chuckling at his remark. Both of his arms held Huey now, as Healy had taken the balloon and tied it to a chair at the kitchen bar.

As Holly walked back to him, Holland explained, "We spent so long looking for his family, and now he has a sister and two dads." His smile faded as he furrowed his brows and aimed them at Healy. "Because _someone_ didn't want to be called Uncle Jack."

Healy shrugged in his defense. He already acted like a father figure to Holly, but she had a real father. Huey was his first kid. He was going to call him his son as much as he wanted to.

Holly chuckled at Holland. "I guess all those years of me asking for a sibling paid off."

"Yeah, so don't ask again because you're only getting one."

The two laughed for a moment until Holland stepped a little closer. "Do you want to see him?" he asked.

Holly replied with a quiet, "Yeah."

Holland bent Huey down to her so she could get a good look at him. She took in a breath when she saw how scrunched up Huey's face was against their father's chest. This was the first time she had really looked at him all week. She understood what all the fuss was about now.

"He's so cute."

"Isn't he?"

Holly reached out her hand to touch Huey but found herself pulling back. Another lump was rising in her throat, but she was quick to push it back down. There was no need to be scared about this. She would have to do it at some point. It might as well be now.

Almost whispering, she asked, "Can...Can I hold him?"

"Yeah, of course, sweetheart. You just have to have one of your arms holding his head and the other holding the rest of him to keep him steady. You got it?"

"Yeah."

"Okay."

Holland began to hold Huey out and put him in her arms when Holly stepped back. Everything that could go wrong began to enter her head. What if she dropped him? She would have had a baby brother for the first time in her life and lost him in the first two minutes from her clumsy hands. God, she'd never be able to live that down.

"Wait," Holly said, holding her hands out at her chest. "Can I sit and hold him?"

"Yeah, that's fine."

The Marches made their way over to the living room, where Holly sat in a chair and Healy sat on the couch across from her. Holland stood before her and asked, "Are you ready now?"

"Yeah."

"Alright. Here he comes again."

Holly let Huey fall into her arms and gasped when she felt how light he was in her grip. Were all babies this freaking small? She didn't really mind it, though. The moment she felt Huey curl up against her and coo into her chest, Holly knew that she was going to love this kid for the rest of her life.

"Hi," she whispered to him. "Hi, Huey. I'm Holly."

Holly felt tears well up in her eyes and choked out the rest of her words. "I'm your big sister. Yeah. You're my little brother now. And I'm going to take good care of you."

She looked over at Healy and Holland across from her and gave them a wavering smile. "We all will." 

Healy and Holland smiled back at her and watched Huey rest in her arms. Holly was right. They _were_ going to take good care of him. They made a promise to from the moment they laid eyes on him, and they were going to keep it. It would remind them of just how rewarding their job could be. Sure, they failed a lot, and it did suck when that happened. But there was always some good that came out of the bad. That's what Huey would always be for this case. 

Huey Patrick March. Wendy was right. It did have a nice ring to it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I really appreciate it because Huey is my pride and joy and I pretty much have his whole life with the Marches developed. If you like this fic, be sure to be on the lookout for more works involving him. Until then, I’ll be posting works from other fandoms so keep an eye out for those as well. Thanks again! :)


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